The Surprising Adventures of a Glaceon in Unova
by Captain Spock
Summary: Saved from the brink of death, Boreas is now on the adventure of his life, exploring the region of Unova. Accompanied by a noble Servine, an attractive Vaporeon with conflicting loyalties, a wise, kind Dratini, their trusty trainer and many other friends, will they succeed in their quest to defeat Team Plasma, who have declared war on all trainers?
1. Aqua

Part One: Meet the Humans

Chapter One: Aqua

_Present_

Boreas yawned as he stared off at the passing riverbanks, bored out of his skull. There was absolutely nothing to do on the small motorboat except being bored. Earlier that day, the excitement of the chase had left no time for boredom, but now that Team Plasma had escaped, Boreas really noticed how long the way back to Driftveil was. He couldn't even play with Black, his trainer, as he was too busy steering the boat. _Maybe I should just ask him to return me to my pokéball,_ thought Boreas, _at least I'll be out of the direct sunlight in there._

Boreas sighed and stared at the riverbanks again, but this time something caught his eye. They were passing by a small rock in the river, and on the rock was a very cute Vaporeon, sunning. Her shapely body was covered in blue fur that sparkled in the Sun, her finned tail was about as long as the rest of her body, and when she looked up as the boat passed Boreas saw she had a lovely face. She smiled and winked at him, and Boreas felt as if his heart had stopped and his blood was boiling, and blushed under his fur. He tried to greet her back in some way, but only managed an awkward nod and something that was supposed to be a charming smile but probably looked more like two fishermen had caught their hooks in the corners of his mouth and were now trying to reel him in. It had been a long time since he had last seen another Eevee, let alone one as pretty as this Vaporeon, so Boreas yearned to go talk to her. Unfortunately the boat had already passed and they were moving away.

"Black, stop the boat; I want to talk to that Vaporeon," Boreas said to his trainer, who didn't understand a word of it, as usual.

"Not now, Boreas," he said, "Let me just focus on steering, or we'll end up on a rock."

"C'mon, just look over there, and you'll get it!" Boreas said, pointing to the Vaporeon.

Unfortunately, Black's back was turned to him while he steered. "If you're hungry just get some berries from my backpack."

Boreas sighed, looked at the shapely Vaporeon again, and jumped off the boat. The water was cold, but that was quite a relief after sitting in the unseasonably warm Sun. He managed to resurface and began swimming to the rock clumsily. Though his swimming was bad, he managed to keep himself afloat and slowly made progress against the river's gentle current. After a few minutes of unhandy swimming while the Vaporeon watched him with amusement, he finally arrived at the rock and held on to it with his front paws to keep afloat. He looked up into a pair of gorgeous black eyes looking at him expectantly, and realised he had no idea what to say.

"Uh... Hi," he said.

"Hi there," said the Vaporeon, "my name's Aqua."

"Hi Aqua," Boreas said awkwardly.

"So..." she asked. "Do you have a name?"

"Uh... Y-yes, it's Bors. No, Boreas!" He kicked himself underwater for making a complete mess of this. Though he had planned to be really charming and witty, he realised he was currently displaying all the charm and wit of a spoilt carrot.

After a very awkward pause of a few seconds, she said: "So um... Can I help you, Boreas?"

"Uh, well... Y'see... I just wanted to tell you that though my Blizzard is usually powerful enough to freeze a Heatran, with someone as hot as you nearby I couldn't even manage a cooling breeze."

It was silent for a second or two, and Boreas felt incredibly awkward and was about to apologise for wasting her time and try to swim back to the boat. Then she started laughing, a sound more wonderful than the sound of a newly-sprung brook in the mountains to Boreas. "Thanks. I've never heard that one before. Come, join me, the rock is big enough for two and I've seen minerals who were better swimmers than you."

Boreas gladly joined Aqua on the rock. It was just large enough for two to sit on while maintaining a somewhat respectable distance. Boreas tried to think of what to say next, but Aqua saved him the trouble as she asked:

"I saw you with a human on that boat. Is he your captor? Will he come after you for escaping?"

"Captor?" Boreas asked in surprise. "No, he's my trainer; his name's Black."

"Yeah, that's what I meant. So you're a captive pokémon?"

"No, I'm not. He's my trainer, not my captor."

"You say Arseus, I say Arkeus. It's the same thing, really," Aqua said smugly.

Boreas was getting annoyed. "No, it's not! Black is not my captor, he's my trainer and what's more, he's my friend. And I don't like it when you call him my captor."

Aqua gave him a sceptical look. "He keeps you locked up in a little plastic ball, doesn't he?"

"No he doesn't: he only returns me to my pokéball for my own protection, like when we crossed the Route 4 desert."

"Okay, but he makes you fight his fights for him, and orders you around during those fights, doesn't he?"

Boreas tried to think of some clever rebuttal, but she wasn't completely wrong and he found it hard to think while her deep black eyes looked into his, so he just said: "Well... I suppose you're partly right there, but the way you phrase it makes it sound a lot different then what it's actually like."

"Different in what way?"

"Well, for one thing he doesn't give that many orders during fights, because they go too quickly for that; trained pokémon too make most of their own decisions in battle. But even more importantly, he doesn't "make" me fight, I choose to fight for him because he's my friend." Aqua snorted sceptically. "No, really. Besides, I want to become the Champion as much as he does. And I'm even more motivated than him to stop Team Plasma after all they've done to me."

"Team Plasma? Are those the humans you were chasing when you came by earlier?"

"Yes, that's them. They got away from us this time, unfortunately. They're a bunch of pokémon thieves who want to separate humans and pokémon."

"Sounds like a good idea to me. What have humans ever done for us?"

"Sure, maybe it sounds like a good idea to you now, but they do wicked things to achieve that goal, and they don't just want to liberate pokémon from bad people, but they want to separate pokémon like me from trainers who are their friends as well."

"Perhaps they're right. Maybe a pokémon and a human can't be friends."

Boreas found it difficult to argue with those pretty eyes, but couldn't let that go. "What about Black and me, then? I can assure you we are friends."

"Maybe you aren't. Not really."

"What-"

"No, hear me out. I once knew a Lanturn who had been captured by a Gyarados when she was a Chinchou. That particular Gyarados had a habit of hoarding his food, so he would sweep the sea for food daily and throw what he couldn't eat into a big enclosed cave and eat them later. After several weeks in the cave she managed to escape. You'd expect her to hate her captor, but she never spoke ill of him. When she would speak of him, she would talk about how he never treated her or his other prey unkindly and how he would always make sure there was enough food for them. When someone is held captive for a long time, they will actually convince themselves their captor is a friend, because it feels a lot better than being a captive."

Boreas hesitated. He had heard of this before, but had never considered it might apply to him. "No. Black and I really are friends, I'm sure of it, and if you knew all that we've been through together and all the evil things that Team Plasma does, you wouldn't agree with them."

"Maybe I wouldn't. Why don't you tell me about it?"

"I dunno, it's kind of a long story..."

"Hey, I've got time and I could use the company. And as for you, your "friend" seems not to care that you're gone, so I guess you have time too."

With a start, Boreas realised she was right. "Oh no, you're right! He's gone! I have to swim after him, or I may not find him again!"

"You'd never catch up. I saw your swimming and it's pretty bad, while he's in a boat. Why don't you wait here with me until he returns to look for you? Or, if he doesn't come back for you, I can swim you to Driftveil and you'd just have to hold on."

Though the prospect of talking to Aqua for much longer and then getting to hold her while she swam him to safety sounded very appealing, Boreas was worried about not finding Black again. "Uh... I don't know. I think I should-"

"Please?" Aqua blinked rapidly a few times, and Boreas' desire to go find Black disappeared like snow before the Sun.

"Alright, I'll tell you. It all began when I was just a little cub, eight weeks old..."

–

REWRITE NOTES: When I finished the final chapter of this story, a few weeks ago, I said I would go back to the story's beginning and rewrite the entire thing to bring it up to my modern writing standards. Well, some stuff happened that made me delay that, but now I'm on vacation in Greece and have all the time I need, so I just began. First of all, I should note that these 'rerun notes' which I'll put on some chapters will contain spoilers, so newcomers to the story should skip them. I'll try not to give away too major stuff in them, but you've been warned.

It's been weirdly sentimental for me to read this first chapter again and improve it; seeing Boreas and Aqua meet for the first time so close to the spot where the final chapter ends. I mainly fleshed out the narrative and their dialogue a little better in the rewrite, but this chapter was overall already quite good, despite being the first and shortest chapter of the story.


	2. Twilight

Chapter Two: Twilight

_Past_

"Wait for me, Zeph!" Boreas called after his brother.

"Hurry up!" Zephyrus stopped running for a moment, but only a moment, too impatient too sit still as usual. "If you keep being so slow, you'll never evolve into a cool Jolteon like dad!"

"I'll evolve into something else then, you'd make a better Jolteon anyway! Just wait up and tell me what this is all about!"

"In a minute, we're nearly there! And hurry up, or you'll evolve into a Slowpoke!"

"You can't evolve into a Slowpoke!"

"_I_ can't; _you_ can too!"

The brothers ran on through the forest, until Zeph finally stopped. They were in the midst of thick shrubbery that made it impossible to see very far. "Zeph, are we there?" Boreas asked, "What do you want to show me?"

"Boreas, do you know what a human is?"

"Sure I do, it's those two-legged animals with no fur. I've seen them from a distance. Plus, mum once stole that picnic basket from them with the weird tasty stuff like cheese and sausage and so on in it." Boreas licked his lips at the memory.

"Yeah, that was yummy. Well, I was running through the forest just now, chasing... I don't know what- when I found it!"

"Found what? Another picnic basket?"

Zeph was so excited that he seemed about to start jumping up and down. "A herd of humans! They're just behind these shrubs!"

"Really?" Boreas curiously pushed through the shrubs, but was stopped by Zeph.

"Watch out, we can't let them see us! Eurus says when a human sees you, they catch you and then..."

"Then what?"

"They _eat_ you!" Zeph spoke dramatically. "Alive."

Though Boreas knew their brother Eurus wasn't the most reliable source of information, he was still frightened by the idea. "What does it matter even if they see us, Zeph?" Boreas tried to put himself at ease. "They'll never catch us anyway."

Zephyrus chuckled. "They won't catch _me,_ you mean, I'm fast and cool and I'll become a Jolteon like dad when I grow up. They may catch you, though, Slowpoke, and I'd hate to have to save you."

"Shut up, they couldn't catch me if they tried! They couldn't run after me; they have only two legs so they'd fall over."

"Well yeah, obviously, but they don't need to run, because they've got these red and white balls, and if they throw one at you..."

"Then what?"

"BOOM!" Zeph startled Boreas, "you die! And then they turn you into cheese and eat you. True story, they almost caught me when I discovered them earlier today, but I'm way too fast for them."

Despite all this talk of danger, Boreas was very curious about the humans. He slowly sneaked forward and looked between the branches of the shrubs, careful to remain hidden. He saw a bizarre sight. The humans' burrows were above the ground and made of wood and stone. These burrows covered the landscape for as far as he could see as there were a lot of them. Between the burrows, a few humans were walking around. Boreas quickly stepped back into the shrubs so they wouldn't see him and turn him into cheese.

"See!" Zeph whispered excitedly, "I told you there was a herd of them here!"

Boreas stepped forward again to take another look at the strange place were the humans lived. This time he saw something scary: there was an Oshawott walking around there, being chased by a human female wearing white and orange clothes and a green thing on her head. "Oh no," he said, "Zeph, look over there, we have to help that poor Oshawott! The human's going to eat him!"

Zephyrus looked through the shrubs at the Oshawott. "But what if they catch us too?"

The human had nearly caught the Oshawott. "We have to go, now!" Boreas jumped out of the shrubs and started running down the grassy slope, shouting a warning to the Oshawott. But it was too late: the human had reached him and picked him up. Boreas hardly dared to watch, but to his surprise the human just hugged the Oshawott and they both laughed.

"Boreas!" Zephyrus hissed from the shrubs. "Get back here! The humans will see you!"

"I... Don't think they're that dangerous, Zeph. Look, that human is just playing with the Oshawott."

"Mum and dad will be so mad at you!"

Boreas realised Zephyrus was right and ran back into the shrubbery, though he felt disappointed by it. He found he wanted to see more of the humans and their strange burrows.

"You were so lucky!" Zeph said exasperated, "What if they'd killed you and made you into cheese? Mum and dad would be so mad at that..."

"Maybe they don't really do that, Zeph. That human and that Oshawott seemed friendly to each other."

"Maybe she was just trying to cheer him up so that when she eats him, his flesh is not all stringy from his sadness."

"But you just said they turn you into cheese. Then what does it matter if your flesh is all stringy?"

"I- um- well- I don't know, I'm not a human! I don't eat Oshawotts, unlike them. Let's just go back home, okay?"

But Boreas' curiosity had got the better of him now. He couldn't leave yet. "Not yet. There's one more thing I want to do. I want to see what their burrows look like on the inside."

"What? You can't go inside them! There'll be humans there, and they'll turn you into cheese!"

"I know, I won't go inside. Look at that burrow there, one of the holes in its side is open. I could just look through it. Are you coming with me? Or are you scared?"

"I-I'm not scared! But if any human comes close, we run for our lives, okay?"

"Okay," Boreas nodded. He was frightened too, of course, but his curiosity overwhelmed his fear. They stepped out of the shrubs, and cautiously ran down the grassy slope. A small hedge surrounded the garden of the burrow, but both Eevees were small enough to fit through. They looked around cautiously before running to the open window. It turned out the hole was a lot higher up than they thought: they couldn't even look through if they stood up on their hind legs.

"That's a shame," Zeph said insincerely, "let's go now before they catch us."

"No, I've got an idea. I'll climb on your back and look inside, then you can climb on my back and look inside."

Zeph sighed. "Fine... But then we run away instantly."

He stood under the window and Boreas climbed onto his back. He stood up on his hind legs and peeked through the window. There were no humans inside, just their weird furniture. Boreas feasted his eyes on it all, but was somewhat disappointed by the lack of truly bizarre things. Then a delightful smell hit his nostrils and he saw a delicious-looking sausage lying on the table.

"What do you see?" Zeph whispered.

"Sausage," Boreas said, licking his lips, "I'll be back in a moment." He pulled himself up on the window frame´s base and jumped inside. No humans rushed in to eat him, no horrible monsters appeared; it seemed to be safe for now. Boreas jumped up on a chair, then on the table, grabbed the sausage, and went back outside via the same route.

"You went inside!" Zeph whispered in awe.

"And I got us sausage. Now it's your turn to look."

"No, this place gives me the creeps. Let's go back to the forest!"

They ran back to the shrubbery and hid themselves. "Do you want half?" Boreas asked.

"We don't know what's in it," Zeph said, "maybe that sausage is made of Eevee!" Boreas took a bite. It tasted delicious. "That would mean you're a cannibal now!"

Boreas didn't feel any different. "I don't think so, I don't feel like a cannibal. It tastes very good. If you don't want it I'll just eat it myself."

"No, I want too!" Zeph ate his half of the sausage and let out a satisfied belch. "Y'know, we can't tell mum and dad about this. Only Notus and Eurus. We'd get in so much trouble if mum and dad knew..."

"Yeah,I guess," Boreas said, though he wanted to tell everyone about the strange things he'd seen. "Think I can take another look though? Maybe they'll have more yummy stuff..."

"No," Zeph said resolutely. "We should go home now, it'll be dark soon."

"I can see in the dark..." Boreas pouted, anxious to satisfy his curiosity. "I could still see stuff..."

"Mum and dad will be really mad if we get home after dark!"

"Oh yeah... Fine, I guess we'll go back. But I'll return here as soon as I can."

–

By the time they made their way back to the burrow's vicinity the Sun had set and twilight quickly darkened the forest. Suddenly a distant flash of light lit up the forest.

"Oh no," Boreas said, "it's going to storm too... And we'll already be in so much trouble for coming home after dark..."

Zephyrus suddenly stopped in his tracks. "Boreas, the sky is clear." Another flash lit up the forest. "And those flashes are coming directly from our burrow's direction..."

The brothers ran even faster now, and the flashes of light became brighter as they approached. Then, suddenly, there came one final flash and after that the forest remained dark. When they came closer to the burrow, they heard sounds of fighting. When they finally arrived, the scene before them was terrible: their mother, standing in the burrow's opening, was fighting five Zangeese at once, using the leaf on her forehead to parry their sharp claws and attack, while their father lay on the forest floor among three other Zangeese, his throat covered in blood. Their mother was clearly at the end of her abilities too, as several deep cuts - one of which ran over her face and crossed a now dead eye - covered her body and she was losing blood rapidly. Seeing Boreas and Zeph stand still in shock, she shouted "Run! Run for your lives!"

This snapped them out of their shock. They ran through the nocturnal forest, eyes full of tears and the horrible image of their dead father and the mortal fear in their mother's eyes. Behind them, two Zangeese decided to pursue the much easier prey. Boreas noticed Zeph wasn't running at his full speed, but was matching his speed to him instead.

"Zeph, run as fast as you can!" he shouted, and an icy shiver of terror went over his spine as he heard the rustling of something running through the shrubbery on both sides of him.

"I'm not leaving you behind too, Boreas! We've got to stick toge-"

A Zangoose jumped from the shrubs, a claw flashed, and Zeph collapsed with a horrifying gargle. Boreas stopped in his tracks as another large white pokémon jumped out in front of him. The Zangoose lifted its sharp claw, and Boreas knew there was no escape and prepared for the killing blow.

Suddenly a vine shot from behind him, wrapped around the surprised Zangoose's claw, and pulled hard enough to throw him to the ground. Boreas looked around in surprise and saw a Snivy and a human standing there.

"Don't worry, boy!" the Snivy said. "We shan't let them get you too!"

"Octa, Leaf Tornado!" ordered the human. The Zangoose was charging at Octa and his trainer, both claws ready, but the Snivy created a small tornado of sharp leaves that made the Zangoose cry out in pain as they cut into its skin. The other Zangoose charged the trainer, who jumped back to dodge the first slash, then jumped behind a tree against the second. He picked up a large stick while his Snivy caught the other Zangoose in another Leaf Tornado, blocked the Zangoose's slash with it, and hit it back so hard that it flew a bit and crashed into a tree. Both Zangeese - recognising more trouble than they could handle - ran away, back to the burrow.

"Well, that was easy," the Snivy said smugly. "Fortunately these beast couldn't hope to stand a chance against me. Incidentally, my name is Octavianus and- Are you quite alright, boy?"

The horrible truth had just hit Boreas like a heavy hammer hitting his heart. He collapsed and started crying. "Z-Zeph is dead! And dad t-too. And Mum and Eu-Eurus and Notus are gone too, aren't they?"

Octavianus looked defeated. "I- um- Yes, I'm afraid they're all quite dead. I... Apologise we were not here in time to save them as well."

A wave of despair overwhelmed Boreas. He had never felt so alone; everyone he knew on the entire planet was dead... He cried in misery on the forest floor until two big arms picked him up and held him as he cried for everyone that he'd lost.

"There, there, little guy," the human said gently. "We will take care of you and find you a new home. Don't you worry."


	3. Octavianus

Chapter Three: Octavianus

Boreas awoke in the open air and, after a moment of disorientation, the bitter memories of the previous night hit him like a heavy anvil of sadness falling on top of him. He tried to go back to the blissful unconsciousness of sleep, but now his sadness, the Sun's light, and his hunger kept him awake. He smelt a delicious odour and tried to ignore it, as he didn't want to ever eat again in his grief. What was the point now, really? His stomach, however, had different plans and rumbled loudly. Eventually, he couldn't help submitting to his hunger, so he opened his eyes and slowly got up from under the small blanket that had somehow ended up on top of him.

The Snivy Octavianus greeted him. "Good to see you awake, boy," he said. "I do hope you slept well."

"I'm fine," Boreas lied. "Just a bit hungry."

"You're in luck, then," Octavianus said, "for as you can probably smell, Black is preparing breakfast. Incidentally, what did you say your name was?"

"I didn't... But it's Boreas."

"A good name. Did I introduce myself yet? Regardless, my name is Octavianus, but please call me Octa. For Octavianus is a good name to bear, but rather sesquipedalian, wouldn't you agree?"

Boreas was a little overwhelmed by the big word. "R-right, I suppose it is."

"Octa!" Black called. "Breakfast is ready, so wake up our guest and come here!"

Boreas was hungry, of course, but he was a bit afraid of coming closer to the human, still worried he might end up as the breakfast himself. "I don't want breakfast."

"Come, my dear fellow," Octa said, "I heard your borborygmi, so don't pretend you're not hungry. You'll feel much better once you've had a decent meal, mark my words. Besides, I think 'tis about time you met Black."

Boreas' stomach rumbled loudly and saliva entered his mouth as he smelt the food's delicious odour, and suddenly he was convinced to join Octa and Black. The human was baking food in a pan on a small fire and scooping it onto three plates. He saw Boreas and smiled friendlily. "Hey there, Eevee. It's good to see you awake. Have some breakfast."

Boreas sat down and ate gratefully. The food was delicious and warmed him from the inside. He felt satisfied for the first time in a day by it. He looked up at the friendly human who had rescued him and given him food, and decided he would have to tell Eurus and Zeph that humans weren't-

He felt a lump in his throat and his eyes became hazy with tears as he realised he could never tell Eurus or Zeph how wrong they were, nor would Eurus ever try to make something up and pass it off as truth again. He would never get to introduce Zeph to this human. Both of them were gone forever and he would somehow have to live without them. The grief for his lost family came back in full force and bitter tears forced themselves into his eyes.

Black petted Boreas' collar. "There, there, little guy. I can't bring back your family, but I promise I will find you someone to live with. Accumula Town is just a few days away, and there must be something they can do for orphaned pokémon at it's pokécenter. I'm sure they can find some lovely, friendly person with a whole family of Eevees that'll take good care of you. I'll make sure of it. By the way, what should I call you?"

Boreas tried to stop crying. "B-Boreas."

"He can't understand you, my dear fellow," Octa said picking up a small stick, "but let me help you." he wrote Boreas' name in the earth with the stick in elaborate, curly letters.

"Thanks, Octa," Black said. "So your name is Boreas? Well then, Boreas, don't you worry, we'll get you to safety and a new home. We should probably get going if you're both done eating; Accumula is still quite a distance away."

Black returned the plates and pan to his backpack and they set out over the over the earthy path through the forest, quickly going further away from home than Boreas had ever been... But he no longer had a home, so it didn't seem so important. Octa walked next to Boreas and started talking to him. "Say, my dear fellow, I know this is somewhat of a sensitive subject to you, but do you happen to know if your parents were well-bred?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean: who selected your grandparents to breed? How far back do you know your family tree? Is your family pure-blooded, or do you descend from any non-Eevees? You must understand, genealogy is somewhat of an interest of mine."

"I... Don't know."

Octa sighed. "Then you probably aren't well-bred, what a pity. I want you to know, though, that it won't interfere with a potential friendship between us."

"It won't?" Boreas wasn't sure what he'd done wrong, but that was a relief to hear.

"No, it won't. Some, like my great-aunt Galaxia, believe those of good lineage should only interact with others of good lineage and treat those who aren't well-bred with contempt, but I disagree with her. That's just getting things backwards, for it seems to suppose that not having good ancestry is a curse, while good ancestry is the standard. In reality, of course, it is the other way around: good blood is a blessing, and the standard is not having it. The fact that you aren't well-bred simply means that while I was born into greatness, you shall have to achieve it for yourself."

Boreas still wasn't quite sure what Octa was talking about. "What do you mean?"

Octa was, by now, gleaming with pride. "You see, my dear fellow, my family has been bred by expert breeders for thirty-five generations to be an excellent line of great pokémon, and I can, in fact, tell you a plethora of stories about each of those generations. Especially of Equinox the Great, the glorious founder of my house. I am also a direct descendant, by twenty-six generations, of the Serperior that was used by general Kalgan, who ruled all of Unova three centuries ago. And my ancestor by thirty-one generations' brother Vigintus was the main pokémon in the team of Sir Edward Slateport, who discovered Hoenn. And Hieronymus, my ancestor of fifteen generations..."

–

_Present_

"...Well, you get the idea. He went on like that for hours, describing the life and achievements of what must've been hundreds of members of his house."

"He sounds like an arrogant, pompous twit," Aqua said.

Boreas chuckled. "Well, he is. But he's also a nice and guy and a great friend once you get over his smug attitude and obsession with ancestry."

"Still, blabbering about his own family like that to someone who'd just lost his family, and indirectly insulting your family while acting like he's so incredibly enlightened for talking to you at all..." She grabbed Boreas' paw. "It must've been so hard for you..."

Boreas blushed. "I-uh- well- I didn't feel so bad. And... um... Where was I? Oh yeah. Actually, Octa's stories about his family actually distracted me from my own family, and I was content to just listen to him for several hours. But in the end I just couldn't hold in my laughter at the weird way he speaks..."

–

_Past_

"...And so 'twas like that that she found out whom- What's so funny, my dear fellow?" Octa stopped talking.

Boreas just couldn't hold in his chuckling. "You talk funny."

Octa wasn't amused. "What are you insinuating?"

"I mean you say things like "my dear fellow" and "'tis". Do all captive pokémon talk like you?"

Octa had returned to his prideful manner. "No, my dear fellow, not many talk like me. This style of speech signifies a sharp wit, great intelligence, good ancestry, and mastery of our noble language."

Boreas thought for a moment, recalling the words he'd learned just by listening to Octa talk. "So if 'tis like thee, my dear fellow, that that I shall be predilected to employ vocabulary with sesquipedalian loquaciousness, notwithstanding the availability of more comprehensible diminutive alternatives, I shall signify myself to possess all of these qualities? Or shall it just be anaspeptic, prasmotic, or even compunctuous of me to cause others extreme periconbobulations when they cannot comprehend me?"

Both were silent for a moment, then erupted into laughter. Octa slapped Boreas on the back jovially.

"Shh," Black hissed. He was standing still in the path. "Look over there, a Lillipup!"

A small canine pokémon with a small tail was sitting under a tree next to the path. It had apparently not noticed them yet. "Excellent," said Octa, rubbing his hands, "a new teammember."

"No, Octa," Black said, "I think we should capture it and make it a new member of the team. I hear their final evolution is wickedly strong. Get in there and use Vine Whip."

"That's what I- Oh, never mind," Octa sighed. He ran at the Lillipup and hit it with a vine, to its great surprise.

"Great job!" Black shouted. "Now I can catch it!" He threw a pokéball. It landed harmlessly several metres to the Lillipup's right. The startled Lillipup ran off into the forest, calling for help.

"You missed?" Octa said incredulously. "How could you miss it? It was right there!"

"Sorry, that was the first time I ever threw a pokéball... I thought it would be lighter. Still, it's several days to Accumula, so it's not like we won't run into any other wild pokémon to catch and show to Bianca and Cheren."

"Hmpf," Octa snorted, "like we'd ever lose a pokémon catching contest to _those_ two."

"Octa, why do you and Black want to catch pokémon?" Boreas asked as they continued on the path. Suddenly a cold shiver ran up his spine again. "He doesn't... Make cheese of them, does he?"

Octa raised an eyebrow very high. "I... Don't think he does. But, my dear fellow, the Champion battles with six pokémon. Despite my ancestry and skill, I couldn't hope to defeat six mighty pokémon on my own. So we'll need a team of six by then. Preferably sooner, as most other trainers use multiple pokémon too."

"What's the Champion?" asked Boreas.

Octa stared at him incredulously. "You... Don't know? Sorry, I forgot you are very young and grew up in the wild. The Champion is the most powerful trainer in all of Unova. When Black defeats him, he will be the new Champion, and I will be in the Hall of Fame as his main pokémon, both of us achieving glory everlasting. Of course, that will not be a new feat for my family, as I directly descend from nineteen different Hall of Fame members. My grandmother, for example, was in-"

Boreas interrupted him, "Where does the Champion live?"

"The Champion can be found all the way in the north of Unova, in a valley within the gigantic and incredibly dangerous Black Mountains. There is a city there, and on its north the Champion and four other mighty trainers will battle challengers. But to even be allowed to challenge them, one first has to collect all eight badges. This is done by defeating the Gym Leader of each city, a powerful trainer who is an expert on his or her speciality type. We are currently journeying through Unova to collect all of these badges."

"Oh, how many do you have?"

Octa seemed a bit embarrassed. "Well... Not a single one. Black and I only met yesterday; I was a present for his seventeenth birthday. We're travelling to Striaton City, where we shall defeat our first Gym Leader. On the way there, we shall stop in Accumula to get you a new home."

–

REWRITE NOTES: This chapter contained some information that was contradicted by later chapters: for example, Octa told Boreas the Champion lives on a huge, desolate mountain (notice the singular) in the north of Unova in the original version, mentioning nothing of the Black Mountains or the pokémon league town or anything. I also ended up changing a few details about his family that were contradicted later.


	4. Rivals N Enemies

Chapter Four: Rivals N Enemies

"...To which the barman says: "May I push in your stool?"" Octa said. Boreas laughed, though the joke was rather lame. "Now it's your turn again, my dear fellow."

"Let me think..." Boreas said, "Oh yeah, I remember another one: A zombie-pirate and a Wigglytuff are walking on the beach together, when suddenly the zombie-pirate steps in a- Hey, look over there, I think we're getting close to another herd of humans!" Boreas pointed at a big, grey building that was visible through the trees.

"_Herd_ of humans, my dear fellow?" Octa mocked. "We in the civilised world call it a town, you know."

Embarrassed, Boreas shifted his position in Black's arms uncomfortably. "I know, I know."

Octa climbed from Black's shoulders to his head and stood on top of it to look further. "Regardless of your odd vocabulary, I believe you're right. We appear to be approaching an urban centre, quite possibly Accumula."

"Ouch!" Black yelped. "Octa, get back on my shoulder, or you can walk for yourself!"

Octa quickly apologised and slithered back to his shoulder. The sight of the big grey building ahead frightened Boreas a bit. "Octa, I'm scared. Isn't going inside a human town dangerous for us?"

"Well, on our own there might be some slight peril to us, I suppose, but with Black along we have nothing to worry about. Humans never attempt to capture the pokémon of another individual. After all, if one went around doing so, what is to stop others from doing likewise, and then one would have to perpetually watch one's pokémon and be wary of others. Besides, most pokémon are rather attached to their trainer and wouldn't appreciate being taken."

"But what if we get lost? Or if there's something much more dangerous than humans hidden in there? And I don't know anything about human towns, maybe I'll inadvertently do something very stupid or dangerous..."

"Don't worry, my dear fellow, just stay close to Black and yours truly. I shall tell you all about urban locations and their peculiarities once we arrive there."

"Heeey, Black!" A voice shouted from behind. "Yoohooo, wait up!"

"Bianca?" Black said as he turned around. A human female wearing white and orange clothing was running at them, waving. Black stopped to wait for her.

"Heeey, Black!" She said as she caught up, beaming. "It's good to see you again! What, it's been..." A thoughtful expression appeared on her face.

"...All of five days, yeah." Black chimed in jokingly.

Bianca returned to her energetic demeanour. "Only five days? But so much happened! I have so much to tell you!"

Black smiled friendlily. "I have much to tell you too. Why don't we try to find Cheren and then we can have something to eat together in town?"

"Cheren? Oh, I passed him about an hour ago, so he should catch up to us soon enough. I wanted to walk with him, but he was so slow and when I told him to hurry up he became all Cheren-like and told me I would scare off- Oh, you caught an Eevee!"

Before either Black or Boreas could protest, Bianca had taken Boreas from Black's arms and hugged him. "Oh, it's so cute! Where did you find an Eevee, I want one too! They're so rare and cute! Oh, it's so adorable and fluffy, like a teddy bear! It's even purring cutely! What will you make it evolve into? I hear they can evolve into three different pokémon! Oh, Cheren will be so jealous of you when he sees it! Has it- Hey, don't be scared!"

Boreas, startled by the sudden hug, had escaped from Bianca's grip and was now hiding from the overly energetic human behind Black's legs.

"I told you you would scare pokémon away," another approaching human said. He had black hair and wore glasses, black trousers, and a blue jacket. "And to answer your questions, since Black looks like he just about drowned in that torrent of words of yours, yes it is, presumably here on Route 1, yes they are, yes it is, it was actually growling because you were just about smothering it, knowing Black he probably doesn't know yet, they can actually evolve into seven different pokémon, and no, I won't."

"Hi Cheren," Black greeted the new arrival. "Where's your pokémon?"

"Tepig is in his pokéball," Cheren said. "There's no reason to tire him by making him walk around."

"Oh yeah, I returned Oshy to his pokéball too," Bianca said as the three walked into Accumula. "He was very tired after we caught a seriously cute Lillipup, so I'm giving him a rest. By the way, guys, how's your pokédex coming along? Did I mention I caught a Lillipup and that it was really cute yet? So now I'm at two."

"I've caught a Purrloin," Cheren said, "so if that Eevee is all Black caught, it looks like we have a three-way tie."

Black scratched behind his ear in embarrassment. "Uh yeah, I didn't actually catch Boreas; he's not really mine. I'm just taking him to the pokécenter."

Boreas had more or less forgotten about that. In the past few days, he'd gotten so used to being around Black and Octa. He liked them both a lot, and didn't really want to part with them any more; they were his new friends, why would he?

"Really?" Bianca asked, "what's wrong with him then? He hasn't got fleas, has he?"

"Fleas?!" snapped Boreas, scratching his neck. "_You_ have fleas!"

Black told the other humans the story of how the Zangeese had attacked Boreas' family and how he had managed to rescue only Boreas as they walked through town. The story reminded Boreas of that horrible night, and how terribly alone he had felt. He had felt as if he was the only person left in a cold, dark, empty universe, no one to care for him, with no one to talk to, no one to love, no one to dry his tears about his family. Now he had Octa and Black, and the thought of losing them too and being alone once again was unbearable.

"Octa, Black!" he squeaked. "I want to stay with you! I don't want to go to someone else!"

"Are you certain, my dear fellow?" Octa asked, slithering down to the ground and walking next to Boreas. "We shall be travelling through Unova for at least several months, quite possibly years. We may encounter exceptionally perilous situations, and environmental circumstances may get very unpleasant, especially during winter. Wouldn't you prefer if the pokécenter found you someone who doesn't travel and has a group of Eevees, so that you may live happily with a new, adoptive family?"

Boreas barely had to think about it. Leaving his only friends to live with strangers? Plus, the travelling seemed more of a benefit than a problem; he had enjoyed seeing all these places he'd never been to in the past few days. "No, I want to stay with you; you are my friends! I don't care if it may be dangerous, I just want to stay. Please?"

"I'm honoured, my dear fellow, but you'll have to convince Black, not me. Of course, that means you'll first have to make him understand what you're saying in the first place. For what it's worth, I'd like it if you remained with us. 'Tis said that a civilised man seeks out good and intelligent company, so that through learned discourse he may rise above the savage and come closer to wisdom."

Black had just finished his story and Bianca was softly weeping. "So, did you catch any pokémon after that?" Cheren asked.

That made Bianca furious. "You- You callous, cold-hearted, insensitive jerk! How can you care about the stupid pokémon catching contest after all that Eevee's been through?"

Cheren held up his hands in apology. "I'm sorry, I meant nothing by it, I was just curious."

"No, I didn't catch any pokémon. I... just didn't meet any. Bad luck, I guess."

Boreas grinned. They had actually met nine wild pokémon; three of them had fled before Black could even throw a pokéball, he had missed five of them, and the only one that he had actually hit, a Patrat, had escaped from the pokéball and ran off before he could throw a second.

"That's strange," Cheren said, clearly suspecting the truth, "I ran into seven wild pokémon. What rotten bad luck for you. If I was a suspicious kind of person, I might actually think you were lying and are just really bad at catching pokémon... If I were a suspicious kind of person."

"R-right. Fortunately you aren't a suspicious person, are you?"

Boreas tried to tell Black that he wanted to stay with him.

"Oh, look, Boreas wants me to hurry up," Black said. "Sorry, little buddy; I completely forgot, you must be anxious to meet your new family. We'll visit the pokécenter first, before finding a place to eat if you just can't wait."

"No, no, that's not what I said at all!" Boreas protested.

"Alright, alright, calm down, we're already going. You just can't wait to get there, can you?"

Exasperated, Boreas turned to Octa. "Can you believe this guy?"

Black turned to Bianca and Cheren, "I'll have to visit the pokécenter first, and I'll probably be there for a while. Why don't you go on ahead, I'll catch up later."

"No no no," Bianca chirped. "Oshy needs a break, I'll follow you to the pokécenter. Cheren is coming along too."

"But I don't- hmpf, whatever," Cheren sighed.

"Octa, can't you write down what I'm trying to tell him?" Boreas asked.

"Sorry, my dear fellow, but these stone roads are too hard to write on. We'll have to think of something else, and fast too."

Boreas was too busy thinking to be worried about the humans all around them or the weird stone surroundings as they walked through town. Suddenly an idea sprang to mind. "Octa, we could form the shapes of the letters ourselves!"

"Wouldn't that look rather silly, though?"

"C'mon, help me. I can't do it by myself."

"Fine. B is up first," Octa sighed. Boreas stood up on two legs, carefully keeping his balance with his tail, and Octa grabbed his shoulders and curved his body to form the upper bulge of the B while his tail formed the lower bulge. With Octa hanging on to him like that, Boreas had a very hard time staying on two legs.

"Aww, look how cute!" Bianca squealed. "Black, your pokémon are playing some kind of game."

"Hey, that looks pretty funny," Black chuckled.

"Oh, oh!" Bianca looked like something was just escaping her memory. "I think I saw pokémon do funny tricks like that on TV once... Let me think... Oh yeah, it's called a pokémon musical! I think they do them in Driftveil!"

"Nimbasa," Cheren corrected.

"When I get to Nimbasa, I'm totally going to sign up my pokémon for that, it'll be so cute! You guys should sign yours up for it too when you get there! Maybe they'll get to perform together."

Meanwhile Boreas just couldn't keep his balance any more, so he let go of Octa and they both fell backwards. "Hmpf, that was futile," grumbled Octa.

"No it wasn't!" Boreas didn't want to give up hope yet. "Let's form the next letter."

"That won't help, my dear fellow," Octa said. "If they didn't recognise our B as a letter, an O shan't fare much better. I'm afraid we'll have to think of something else."

They followed the humans through the town, thinking in silence, when they entered a large square where humans were collecting. One of the buildings had an image of a pokéball printed on it's façade and a red roof.

"Look Boreas," Black said, "that's the pokécenter where we'll find you a new family."

Boreas shook his head, but Black had looked away before he saw the gesture.

"I wonder what's going on there," Cheren said, looking at the people collecting on the other side of the square.

"Oh, let's check it out!" Bianca said. "It's sure to be exciting if it draws so many people!"

"I think Boreas wants to get to the pokécenter right now," Black said. "Or is it okay if we see what's going on first?" Boreas and Octa both nodded vehemently. "Okay, let's see it then."

The three humans joined the crowd to see what was going on. Octa and Boreas each climbed to one of Black's shoulders so they could see over all the gigantic humans. On a grassy plateau in the square stood nine humans. Eight of them wore the same costume, mostly grey with a white, apron-like cloth. The left- and rightmost of them were holding big black flags with a symbol of a blue line that zigzagged over a shield and formed a P with a Z in the background. The same symbol was also embedded on their clothing. The eight who wore the same costume formed a line together, and a ninth figure was pacing in front of them. His clothing was nothing like the others', a long yellow-and blue mantle with red eyes on it and an upper portion that resembled a castle's battlements. He had long green hair and his right eye was covered by a red eyepatch.

"My name is Ghetsis," he spoke. His voice sounded like it belonged to a much older man. "I am here representing Team Plasma. Today, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to talk to you about pokémon liberation."

"Huh?" Cheren said.

"What?" Bianca said.

Ghetsis continued as he paced. "I'm sure most of you believe that we humans and pokémon are partners that have come to live together because we want and need each other. However... Is that really the truth? Have you ever considered that perhaps we humans... Only assume that this is true? Pokémon are subject to the selfish commands of trainers... They get pushed around when they are our 'partners' at work... Can anyone say with confidence that there is no truth in what I'm saying?"

"No way," Cheren exclaimed, though his voice betrayed some uncertainty.

Black seemed lost in thought. "I don't know," he mumbled.

"Now, ladies and gentlemen, pokémon are different from humans. They are living beings that contain unknown potential. They are creatures from which we humans have much to learn."

"You can say that again," said Octa, proudly.

"Tell me, what is our responsibility toward these wonderful beings called pokémon?"

"What could it be?" Bianca mumbled.

"Liberation?" mocked Cheren.

"That's right!" Ghetsis pointed at Cheren, either oblivious to or ignoring the sarcasm. "We must liberate the pokémon! Then, and only then, will humans and pokémon truly be equals. Everyone, I end my words here today by imploring you to consider the relationship between humans and pokémon... And the correct way to proceed. We sincerely appreciate your attention."

–

_Present_

"That all sounded very reasonable," Aqua said. "I take it that wasn't your last meeting with Team Plasma."

"Unfortunately it wasn't," Boreas said. "But I agree, Ghetsis' speech sounded reasonable, and it gave everyone something to think about. Humans around us were discussing it, and I myself wondered if I really wanted to stay with Black. If being with humans really meant being ordered around and never reaching my full potential like Ghetsis claimed, wouldn't it be better to be released? Though Octa didn't say anything, he may have wondered what right human breeders had to choose for thirty-five generations whom his ancestors bred with. At least, he should have wondered that."

"But despite you considering leaving Black, you obviously convinced yourself you wanted to stay with him and somehow managed to communicate that to him, didn't you?"

"Yes, I did, but I got some help with that..."

–

_Past_

The crowd dispersed as Boreas was thinking about Ghetsis' speech while Bianca, Cheren, and Black discussed the same topic. The only other person who kept standing in place was a human with long green hair. He wore white clothes and a Purrloin sat on his shoulder.

"I agree with Cheren," Octa said to Boreas. "While this gentleman may be right about some humans, Black is not like that; neither are the good people of Crimson Breeders who have so long been my house's friends. I, for one, would not leave even if he did 'liberate' me."

The green-haired human seemed to be startled by that. He walked over, pushed a surprised Bianca aside, and spoke very rapidly: "Your Snivy, just now he was saying-"

"Hey, who do you think you are?" Cheren asked annoyedly.

"Saying? What do you mean?" asked Black. "That's a weird thing to say."

"Oh," the human seemed disappointed. "Then you can't understand them either. How sad. My name is N."

Octa chuckled. "Now what kind of silly name is that?" he said to Boreas as the three other humans introduced themselves.

"That is _my_ name,"said N.

Octa blushed. "Um- I apologise, I was just surprised by your rather uncommon name. My name is Octavianus, and my friend on the other shoulder is Boreas."

"It's a pleasure to meet you both."

Boreas was becoming increasingly aware that Black was in an awkward situation, with N talking to the pokémon on his shoulders and more or less ignoring him. "Can you talk to pokémon?"

N nodded. "Yes; do not be fooled by my appearance: I can understand you perfectly. It's a shame your master can't."

Black scraped his throat. "Oh yeah, almost forgot I was here. So, N, it was nice meeting you, but we've got a pokédex to complete and a Champion to beat, so-"

N interrupted him. "The pokédex, eh? So you're going to confine many, many pokémon in pokéballs then."

"Um, I-"

"I'm a trainer too, but I can't help wondering... Are pokémon really happy that way?"

"I don't know if they are," Black said, "but I try my best to make my pokémon as happy as I can."

"You're an interesting trainer. Let me see your skills and your pokémon's with a battle!"

"So, you want to fight then? Octa, show that Purrloin what you can do!"

Octa jumped off Black's shoulders. "Ha, the day I lose to a Purrloin is the day I ask my parents whether I was adopted!"

"Then get ready to hear their confession!" The Purrloin said as he jumped off N's shoulder.

"Show him who's boss, Diego!" N cheered his pokémon on. "Pursuit!"

"Hit it with a Vine Whip, Octa!" Black ordered.

As Diego came charging for Octa, vines shot out of Octa's hands and hit him hard in the face. The Purrloin, however, didn't even flinch at the pain, nor did he seem wounded or hurt in any way. In his surprise, Octa forgot to defend and the Purrloin jumped on him and dug his claws into Octa's flesh. Octa tried to get the Purrloin off him by slapping it with his vines multiple times, but as before Diego seemed impervious to attack.

Black recognised the uneven battle and got Octa's pokéball out. "Octa, retu-"

"No, I've got this!" Octa said. To Boreas' great surprise, Black actually seemed to understand the meaning this time.

Octa lashed out with both vines this time, and the Purrloin was knocked loose, made a half somersault through the air, and landed hard on the ground.

"Ha, and how do you like _that_?" Octa boasted. "You cou- Hey, are you alright, chap?"

It seemed Octa had hit Diego much harder than he'd thought. The Purrloin was not getting up, and a flood of blood was starting to ooze out of deep wounds all over his body. His breathing was very fast and shallow.

Octa rushed over to the dying Purrloin, heavily shocked. "H-Holy smokes, no. I didn't- It wasn't my intention to-"

Suddenly the blood now covering Diego's flanks disappeared, and he lifted his head, bit Octa's leg, and gave him two vicious slashes with his claws. Octa screamed in pain, Black cursed, and Boreas shouted: "That's cheating!"

Diego smiled mischievously and said, with a twinkle in his eyes: "No, it isn't. It's called Fake Tears; I just gave it my own special touch."

"You filthy feline fiend!" Octa hissed furiously as he slapped Diego with his vines. "I'll get you for that!"

While the battle continued as it did before, with Diego seemingly impervious to Octa's attacks, Boreas asked: "But how? How did he do that trick with the blood?"

N merely smiled as he cheered Diego on, and the Purrloin kept quiet too. Boreas decided to give his own support to Octa and cheered. "C'mon Octa, you aren't losing to a Purrloin, are you?"

"I'm not losing," Octa hissed as he dodged another Pursuit, "he's just a bit more surreptitious than I had expected."

With a rapid turn, Diego once again grabbed a hold of Octa with his sharp claws. Octa desperately slammed him with vines, and he let go and ran back to N while Octa pursued. Diego climbed back to N's shoulder.

"Come back here!" Octa called after him, "'Tis not over yet!"

"Sure it is," said Diego. "It's no fun to beat someone as weak as you; I'm done fighting; you can come back once you stand a chance."

"We'll see how much of a chance I stand when you get down here, coward!"

"No, we won't; because I'm not coming."

N sighed, "I give up, you win."

Diego startled. "Wait, that's not-"

"Huh?" Black said. "But your pokémon isn't even hurt yet!"

"Diego is in much worse condition than you can see," N responded. "You win, but remember that as long as pokémon are confined in pokéballs, they will never be perfect beings. I have to change the world for pokémon, because they are my friends." He started to walk off when Boreas had an idea.

"N!" he called. "Could you please tell Black I want to stay with him?"

N turned around surprised. "Why?"

"Black rescued me from a pack of Zangeese that killed my family. He wants to take me to the pokécenter so they can find a new home for me, but I've already found one. I want to stay with him."

"I never expected to hear a pokémon say something like that..." mumbled N. He turned to Black. "Boreas says he wants to stay with you. I can't fathom why, but he's quite adamant about it." He walked off.

"Weird guy," Cheren said. "Wonder what loony bin he came from."

"Boreas, do you really want to stay with me? Don't you want me to find you a new home?" asked Black.

Boreas nodded.

"Well, if you're as adamant about it as N said, I won't try to persuade you. Welcome to the team, little buddy."

"I do still have to visit the pokécenter, though," he said to Bianca and Cheren. "Octa received some nasty scratches in that battle."

Bianca had been uncharacteristically quiet for quite a while now. "Black, I've been thinking about what that Ghetsis guy and N said. D'you think they might be right? I mean, maybe Ghetsis is right about this pokémon liberation thing. What if Oshy is unhappy with me?"

Black gave his friend's shoulder a friendly squeeze. "I'm sure he's very happy with you."

"Do you really think so?"

"Of course," Black boasted, "I don't need N's powers to understand what a pokémon thinks."

Octa and Boreas roared with laughter.


	5. Boreas' First Battle

Chapter Five: Boreas' First Battle

A light spring drizzle fell from the sky and made small puddles on the road as Black and his pokémon walked over Route 2. Unlike Route 1, Route 2 was a paved stone road, and cars and bicycles would occasionally pass them. Thanks to the road's good condition they covered a larger distance every day than on Route 1, but they met few wild pokémon. Black wore a long raincoat, but Octa and Boreas thought the rain was quite refreshing and didn't want to be protected from it.

At some point they became aware of a strange rattling noise, very far away. Over several minutes it became louder and clearly came from behind. A human boy on a bicycle was approaching, slowly overtaking them. As he approached the rattling noise that a piece of paper stuck in his wheel made became louder and more annoying. When he finally overtook them, he suddenly braked and made a skidmark two metres long.

"Hey dude!" shouted the boy as he jumped off his bike. He wore a shorts and a T-shirt that said 'N00BS R NOT COOL'. "Why aren't you wearing shorts? They're comfy and easy to wear!"

"Well... Because it's raining," Black said. "And pretty cold. Besides, I prefer to wear trousers."

"But dude, all the cool kids are wearing shorts!"

"I'll keep that in mind. Bye." Black walked on.

The boy followed him. "I'm Jimmy. You should wear shorts, dude, or everyone will think you're some gay noob."

Black yawned. "I couldn't care less. Now please, go bother someone else, kid."

"No, I want to battle with your pokémon! I'll show you how awesome my Patrat is!"

Black smiled slyly and stopped walking. "Sure. I'll accept your challenge."

"Awesome!" Jimmy said. "My pokéball is at my bike, so I'll go get it!"

While Jimmy ran back to his bicycle, Black knelt to talk to his pokémon. "Alright Boreas," he whispered, "now that you're a member of the team, we'll have to teach you how to fight. And I think this stupid kid would be an excellent first opponent for you. After all, you couldn't possibly lose to him."

Boreas felt very nervous. "But I don't even know what to do!"

"You're right, it'll be an easy victory. Just follow my commands," Black said as he got up.

Jimmy had returned. "I'm gonna win this! Patrat, go!" He threw his pokéball and a small rodent with weird red eyes appeared.

"Get him, Boreas!" said Black.

"B-but I don't know how!" Boreas turned to Octa. "Wh-what do I do?"

"Just get in there and follow Black's orders. You'll likely be victorious, for it's just a Patrat and her trainer looks like his entire family together would be intellectually inferior to either of us."

"Okay..." Boreas said meekly as he nervously set a few steps forward.

"Patrat, Tackle!" Jimmy ordered.

"Boreas, start off with a Tail Whip!" Black ordered.

The Patrat ran at Boreas and bashed into him at full speed. The air was knocked out of Boreas' lungs and he only barely managed to keep from falling over. His side hurt badly where the rodent had hit him. Boreas slapped it with his tail, but it didn't seem hurt and knocked him down with another Tackle.

"That's not how you-" Black started, but then he said: "Never mind. Just hit that Patrat with a Tackle yourself."

The Patrat had put some distance between her and Boreas, so Boreas had the chance to charge her. He ran at Patrat and bashed into it with his head. He painfully felt the impact's shock in his neck, and fell to the ground again as he was dizzied, while his opponent seemed only a little bruised. She Tackled him again, and now his ears were buzzing and spots were dancing before his eyes. He was aware of Black and Octa shouting orders, encouragements, or advice to him, but he couldn't make out the words. His entire body was sore, and as he tried to get up again his foe impacted him once more. He collapsed immediately.

"I give up," Black said sadly.

"Woohoo!" Jimmy cheered. "I won! Hahaha, take that!"

Boreas felt incredibly ashamed about losing and letting Black and Octa down. He didn't want to look up to see the disappointment in their eyes, but he could hardly keep lying on the ground either. With a sigh and a jolt of pain from his sore limbs, he got up while Jimmy gloated to Black. Boreas kept his gaze down to avoid looking his friends in the face. Finally Jimmy got on his bicycle and rode away, chanting "I beat a big kid! I beat a big kid! I beat some guy who doesn't wear shorts!"

Seeing Boreas trudge sadly with his tail between his legs, Black picked him up and petted his collar. "Hey, don't worry about it, little buddy. You just weren't ready and I asked too much of you. We'll make you a good battler yet, we'll start training immediately. No, let's make that tomorrow when it's not raining."

Glad that Black wasn't angry at him, Boreas jumped back to the ground only to see Octa was not in a good mood. "Octa? Are you mad at me?"

Octa sighed. "I don't suppose I should be, for you couldn't really help it. I'm just exceptionally embarrassed to have lost to some nincompoop and his Patrat."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be, my dear fellow. One shouldn't dwell on one's mistakes, but instead look forward to prevent repeating them. And since Black declared we shall train you tomorrow, I doubt your next battle will go similarly."

"I just... Didn't think it would be that hard and painful. Even my own attacks hurt me. Does that get any better?"

"Your neck probably hurts now, doesn't it? At least that Tackle you performed looked bad for your neck. The problem lies here: just because you can do something, doesn't mean that action will be reliable in combat. Of course you can tackle someone, but if you haven't mastered Tackle, you could hurt yourself as much as your opponent, as you've noticed. Or take Bite, for example. Pretty much every pokémon can bite, but that doesn't mean biting shall be reliable as a move in combat. If you were to try biting your opponent untrained, you might lose teeth, and the bite shan't be as powerful as it could be."

"So what you're saying is that I lost because I am untrained, and that I might've won if I had been trained."

"Might have won? You would most certainly have won if you had had some basic training. I could have defeated that Patrat blindfolded and with my both arms tied behind my back, and so shall you in a few days. Well, except for the arms, that is, for you couldn't walk properly with them tied behind your back."

–

The next day it was sunny, so they spent the entire day teaching Boreas how to fight. In the beginning they used Black's rolled up sleeping bag as a target for Boreas' attacks, as it was soft enough to prevent him from hurting himself. Later, when Boreas had learned how to keep himself relatively safe during his attacks, Octa acted as the target instead, blocking and dodging most of his attacks with masterly grace. However, as the day continued the rare occasions where Boreas would manage to hit Octa became increasingly common, and he was starting to figure out several handy tricks for surprising him, so eventually they switched back to using the sleeping bag as a target. By the end of the day, Boreas was exhausted but satisfied with a hard day's work.

The next day they did a different kind of training. Now Octa would hit Boreas with attacks, and Boreas had to try to dodge or block. Boreas found this form of training a lot less enjoyable, even though Octa made sure to put very little strength behind the attacks. By noon Boreas had only started managing to dodge the attacks once in a while, and was getting sore from the hundreds of weak attacks that had hit him all morning.

While they were eating lunch, resting from the training, a familiar voice called "Heeeey Black!"

"Hey there, Bianca," Black said before turning around to greet her.

"Oh, you're having lunch, that's a great idea, mind if we join you?"

"Not at all." Bianca and her two pokémon, an Oshawott and a Lillipup, joined them. The Oshawott seemed very shy and more or less hid behind the Lillipup.

"Hi," said the Lillipup, "I'm Puppy, and this is Oshy."

"We've met," Octa said with a slight bow to the shy Oshawott. "But it's nice to meet you. My name is Octavianus, and my friend here is-"

"I'm Boreas," Boreas introduced himself. Octa looked a bit annoyed at being interrupted.

"You know," Bianca said to Black, "Cheren said I walk too fast and will chase wild pokémon away like that. I think he may be right, because I left two days after you from Accumula to visit the market, but I've already overtaken you."

"You don't walk _that_ fast; I haven't travelled for the past two days in order to train Boreas."

"Oh yeah, the really cute Eevee, right? I think Cheren may have stopped to train too. I guess that's important if you want to beat the Gym Leaders, I mean, they're gonna be pretty tough, won't they? But I think I'll see how strong the one in Striaton City is first before I really wait to train."

"I was originally planning to do the same, but when I battled some kid Wednesday, it turned out Boreas had absolutely no experience in any battles whatsoever, so I decided to train him first. Speaking of which, I'd like to see how he fares in a battle now. Will you battle me?"

Bianca adjusted her hat. "Challenge accepted. So... We'll each use two pokémon, I think, because that's all we have. Let's get to it!"

Octa stood up. "Well gentlemen, it seems we are going to have a battle. The best of luck to all of you."

"...Okay," Oshy said quietly.

"What he means is: right, bring it on! And good luck to you too!" Puppy barked.

Boreas felt a lump of anxiety in his throat. "Octa, I don't know if I can do this."

"Don't worry, my dear fellow, you'll be fine this time. Remember all that you've learned in the past two days, and just focus on the battle."

"Boreas, you're up first!" Black said.

"Puppy, let's see how well Black's training has paid off!"

Puppy and Boreas stood opposite each other, waiting for the battle to start. "Boreas, Tail Whip!" Black ordered.

Boreas wagged his tail in a manner that was as cute as he could manage to make him seem harmless to the opponent. "Ha!" Bianca said. "That didn't do anything! Tackle him!"

Puppy charged Boreas, so he patiently waited for the last moment, then quickly sidestepped out of the way and pursued with a Tackle of his own. Puppy came to a halt after missing Boreas and had no time to dodge Boreas' attack, so he was hit hard by it. This time Boreas wasn't hurt by his own attack at all, and managed to get out of the way before the Lillipup could counter-attack his counter-attack. Puppy charged Boreas again; he was surprised how predictable the Lillipup was getting. Boreas quickly used his paw to toss some earth into his opponent's face, obscuring his vision. All it took was an easy sidestep and a quick scratch and Tackle as Puppy missed him. Puppy quickly recovered, however, and unexpectedly hit Boreas rather hard. Boreas charged for Puppy now, compensating for his attempt to dodge, and hit him full on. Puppy collapsed, and Bianca called for his return.

Octa laughed and applauded. "Jolly good work, my dear fellow! I shall now take it over from you, though I wonder whether 'tis at all necessary."

"Great work, Boreas!" Black said. "Now get back, Octa will fight the Oshawott."

Boreas, glowing with pride at his victory, returned to Black's side as Octa took over from him.

"Now it's time for this little one!" Bianca said as Oshy stepped up to meet Octa.

Octa did a little bow as a pre-battle salute and Oshy responded with a curt nod.

"Tackle!"

"Leaf Tornado!"

As Oshy charged him, Octa whipped up a small tornado of leaves, cutting Oshy and hurting him, though Boreas noticed the cuts were only superficial scrapes, unlike the deep wounds Octa had caused to the Zangoose trying to kill him on the night they had met. Octa didn't manage to dodge the quick Tackle that followed, but he responded by slapping Oshy with vines that grew out of his hands. Already Oshy was seriously hurt while Octa was more or less unscathed. After they exchanged another attack, Bianca had no choice but to give up.

"I'm no match for you. Still, it was a fun battle, and we got to see Boreas in action, so I figure it was all good, huh?"

"Yeah, and you did well too. You were just at a type disadvantage, or you might've won."

Octa folded his arms. "Hmpf, thank you very much for that."

"Octa, did you see how cool that was? I mean, I really beat Puppy, and it wasn't even difficult."

Octa smiled. "Yes, you did well. I wonder how we shall fare against the Gym Leader..."

–

AUTHOR'S NOTES: Hello everyone, I was wondering what you think of this story so far. Unfortunately, that's rather hard to tell without reviews. I know, via the handy Story Traffic thingie, that about 20-25 have read the complete fic on this site, yet none of them/you have left a review. Please, tell me what you think. If it's only praise, I'd be happy to hear that, and if you have criticism, I'd like to hear that too so I can improve future chapters. So please, leave a review.

–

RERUN NOTES: What I wrote up there two years ago is still as true; I still enjoy getting reviews, even though I now have 424 of them. So go ahead, and tell me what you think of these rewritten chapters.


	6. A Grey City

Chapter Six: A Grey City

Black and his pokémon finally arrived at the Striaton City pokécenter after nightfall had covered grey Striaton City with darkness, exhausted by the day's journey. They had been ready to stop for the night early in the evening when they had caught a glimpse of Striaton's grey buildings far away, so Black had decided to walk on and rest at the pokécenter. Unfortunately, Striaton turned out to be much larger and more mazelike than expected, and when Black asked the locals for directions to the pokécenter they either ignored him or just gave a vague indication and walked on. They had spent several hours wandering the boring grey city before they finally saw the single non-grey façade of the city. Now Black, about ready to fall asleep on the desk, was filling in his name on a form Nurse Despair gave him. When he was finally done, she gave him the key to one of the small guest rooms, which were upstairs.

"'Twas a lengthy ambulation," Octa yawned. "But spending the night in a comfortable room shall be worth it, shan't it, my dear fellow? I look forward to getting a complete night's sleep without the cold, nocturnal cars raging by, precipitation, or insects awakening me. Just a calm night with excitement nor disturbances."

As Boreas, walking half-asleep, nodded, someone said, "Heeey Black!"

Octa sighed. "Oh, in the name of..." he muttered. The door of the room they had just passed opened, and there was Bianca, wearing a green pyjama. Their practice battle against her was almost two weeks past by now, and they hadn't seen her since, as Black had stayed on the same spot for another day to train Boreas some more while Bianca had been too impatient and hurried on to Striaton.

"Hi there, Bianca," said Black. "How are you?"

"Great, though I lost to the Gym Leader."

"That's a shame."

"He used grass-types, so Oshy was at a type disadvantage, just like when we battled. But at least he- Hey, do I bore you or something?" she snapped with an annoyed edge to her voice as Black had just yawned widely.

"Huh? Oh, 'scuse me; you don't bore me, I'm just really tired, y'know. I've walked all day. Why don't you tell me all about it tomorrow, okay?"

They entered their empty room, and Black stepped into the bed and was asleep within seconds. Boreas found a good place to sleep under the bed, while Octa curled up on the feet-end of the bed.

–

The next morning at breakfast Bianca was telling all about her battle with the Gym Leader.

"...Like, he was a really nice and shy guy named Cilan, and he even apologised after he won. But his brother told him not to. And-"

Black interrupted her. "What type of pokémon did Cilan use again?"

"He used grass-types, silly, a Pansage, I told you that yesterday. But anyway, we started out by both sending our Lillipups to battle..."

"Hmm." Octa spoke while sipping from a cup of tea, "so it appears we're up against a user of the grass-type. That could be problematic, given that I'm a grass-type as well."

"So you have to focus on non-grass-type attacks to win, right?" Boreas asked. "Hey, I've got an idea! If Cilan starts with his Lillipup again and Black starts with me, I can beat that Lillipup, after all I've already beaten one, and then I can tire out the Pansage, and then when I'm actually defeated, you can beat his weakened pokémon."

"Good plan. Though be careful not to underestimate that Lillipup. The fact that you beat one of them doesn't imply your ability to defeat all of them. Since Cilan is a Gym Leader, his Lillipup is likely more powerful than Bianca's. But if you can defeat it, you could indeed help me by tiring out the Pansage. They're silly ape-like creatures, so I don't expect too much trouble. As for fighting with non-grass based attacks; you are not quite correct about that. While this would theoretically seem wisest, 'tis very easy to handicap oneself too severely doing that since they are my strongest."

As they were finishing their breakfast, Black asked: "By the way, did you remember to do that errand Professor Juniper gave us?"

"What errand?" asked Bianca.

"Remember, she told us to visit her friend Fennel."

"Oh yeah! I didn't do that, I guess we should visit her before you go challenge the Gym Leader."

"Do you know where she lives?"

"I don't think the prof told us. Do you reckon nurse Despair might know?"

"I guess we should go ask her."

–

As they walked through Striaton City by nurse Despair's instructions, Boreas became increasingly aware of how incredibly grey and dreary the city was. Every single building was grey, the street was grey, and even the sky was a clouded grey. While most of the people didn't wear grey, their clothes were so similar that they almost seemed like uniforms. Everyone wore blue jeans, and green sweaters, shirts, or tops. Everyone minded their own business and seemed to be on their way somewhere, and no one seemed to be having any fun or talking to each other. The only pokémon out of their pokéballs were at work.

"We fit in here like a streaker at Queen Victoria's funeral," mumbled Octa, making Boreas chuckle.

"Bianca?" Black said softly, as talking felt strange on the quiet street, "Have you noticed the looks most people here give us?"

Bianca nodded. "Some seem almost scared or angry. They were like that yesterday too."

"Not the most welcoming city, eh?"

All the boring greyness made Boreas feel odd. He felt a desperate need to do something to break the city's monotony. He saw several Timburrs and humans repairing a hole in the road and walked up to them.

"Pardon me, but I have nothing to say!" he said to them and then walked on.

"What was the meaning of that behaviour?" an amused Octa asked.

Boreas shrugged. "I'll let _them_ figure that out. I just feel like breaking the monotony of this place. Now give me a moment, I'll go up to that lady over there and pretend to be-"

Octa stopped him. "A laudable goal in itself perhaps, my dear fellow, but I'd rather you didn't upset the locals. Those Timburrs are talking about something right now and eyeing us suspiciously already. I don't think this city is the most accepting recipient of attempts to spread some minor chaos."

Boreas laughed. "Oh, c'mon, what's the worst that could happen?"

"Well, they could have you caught and Black arrested on some nonsensical charge like 'not having one's pokémon under control', 'disruption of public order' or 'general suspicious behaviour" and fined or asked to leave the city."

Boreas laughed. "You can't be serious!"

"I am serious, actually. The chances of that scenario playing out may not be gargantuan, but it does happen. My great-great-uncle Regulus, for instance, once-"

Boreas rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, I'm sure he was arrested once for impersonating a goat in public or something. You're too careful."

"I beg your pardon? Your cavalier attitude is the one that'll get us into trouble."

"You shouldn't worry so much. Even if we do get into trouble, at least we'll have had some fun in this paltry-boring city, and we'll have made some people's day more interesting. But since you're making this into such a big deal I guess I'll stop."

After about ten more minutes of walking through the grey streets, they arrived at the laboratory and rang a doorbell. A long-haired woman with glasses wearing a lab coat opened the door.

"Hi," said Bianca, "I'm Bianca and this is Black. Professor Juniper asked us to visit you."

Fennel clapped her hands together. "Minerva sent you? Excellent, I need some skilled pokémon trainers to help me with my research."

"Well, you've got the right people before you, then," boasted Black. "We are great pokémon trainers, and I'll be happy to help you."

"Good, why don't you come in?"

They followed Fennel inside, through several corridors and past labs were scientists were working on strange experiments. Boreas tried to sneak inside one of them to see what the scientists were doing with fifteen cakes and a saw, but Octa hurried him along. They entered a big lab full of beds and weird, big machines.

"Welcome to my lab. The reason Minerva sent you here is that I have a little favour to ask of you," said Fennel.

"Anything," said Black.

"First, I have to explain that I research the dreams of pokémon here. For several years, I could only get data via roundabout ways, but I've been working on this machine, which will let me view pokémon's dreams directly. It works by tapping into several..."

While Fennel was detailing the workings of the machine, Octa nudged Boreas. "Take a look at Black, my dear fellow."

Black was paying close attention to Fennel's words, looking deep into her eyes with a smile on his face and a slight blush on his cheeks. "He seems interested in the machine."

Octa guffawed. "Methinks he's more interested in its creator, if you know what I mean."

Boreas felt he was missing something. "No, I don't."

"You know, he seems enamoured with her." Seeing Boreas' not-understanding expression, "Twitterpated. Smitten by her, fascinated, enchanted, infatuated, has a crush on her?"

"You mean he's... In love with her? Ew."

"A brilliant deduction, my impulsive little friend. I suppose she _is _quite fair for a human. Of course, this allows me to have some fun. Watch me make him both envious and embarrassed in a single move." He calmly walked over and stood between Fennel's legs, who didn't notice, busy as she was explaining the complex machine, and shot a quick glance up. Then he smirked smugly at Black, who turned as red as a tomato.

"Octa, get back here!" he whispered angrily, then added an apology to Fennel.

Fennel noticed Octa and stopped talking to pick him up. "Hey there, aren't you a cute little guy? Minerva got you from Crimson Breeders, didn't she? Why don't you wait over there for a moment until I'm done talking to your trainer? I promise it won't take long." She smiled to Black, "No need to be embarrassed by him, he's just impatient."

While she talked, Octa shamelessly threw a look down into her cleavage and smirked smugly at Black again. Fennel put Octa down and he rejoined Boreas. "Now normally I wouldn't treat a lady like that, but it was worth it to see that look on Black's face." Since Boreas was laughing a bit too much, he frowned and added: "And don't you even think about making any jokes like that yourself."

"Let's see, where was I?" asked Fennel.

"You had just finished telling us how the machine works," said Bianca.

"I did already? Okay, well, there's a problem with it, you see. It turns out I need a vapour called Dream Mist that is produced by the pokémon Munna and Musharna. It has several interesting effects on dreams, one of which is that they are made much more vivid and stronger, which is needed for the machine to work properly. The problem is the Dream Mist itself is actually illegal in this city, so I can't get any. So my request to you is: could you please catch a Munna and give me some of the mist?"

"Of course!" Black said heartily. "We'll gladly do it. But why did you have to wait for us; couldn't you just ask some other trainer for help?"

Fennel chuckled. "Surely you've already noticed how the people of this city react to even their unwritten rules being broken, let alone if I were to ask someone to actually break the law. Not that that's an entirely bad thing: the crime rates here are so low that you pretty much don't need to bother with locks at all. But it's rather inconvenient right now."

"Where do we find a Munna?" Bianca asked.

"At the northeast of the city there's an old villa where a scientist used to live. It's been abandoned for over a century. Munna lives there now, that's why people call it the Dreamyard. There's actually quite an interesting story behind it, if you want to hear it."

"Of course we-" Black started.

"Perhaps later," Bianca interrupted. "We'll go catch Munna right now."

–

The Dreamyard itself was a large, mostly decrepit and collapsed mansion, and the large garden around it had become a small forest after a hundred years of neglect. It looked rather eerie. As they entered the forest, Boreas noticed an odd smell hanging around.

"Hey Black," Bianca said joyfully, "Now I'll get to see how you catch pokémon! I'm sure I can learn a lot from your skills."

Black returned a forced smile.

"Muuuuuuunna!" Bianca sang. "Where aaaaaaaaare you?! I want to be friends with yoooooooou!"

"Ssh!" Black hissed, "You'll scare them away like that!"

"Cheren said that too, but I'm just making sure they know I'm not sneaking up on them, but want to be their friend."

"I don't think it works like that, Bianca."

"Help, help!" A small, pink piglet appeared floating from behind some shrubbery. "They're after me, please help!"

"See!" said Bianca as the Munna approached. "I told you!"

"What's wrong?" asked Boreas, but at that moment a grey-clad human jumped from the bushes and grabbed the Munna. A second human followed.

"Eep!" Bianca squeaked. "Who are you?"

"We are Team Plasma!" said the left human. "We fight day and night to liberate pokémon from foolish humans!"

The right grunt stood up with the struggling Munna in his hands. "We heard Munna and Musharna emit a strange vapour called dream mist, which influences people's dreams. Sage Rood wants to use that to make people want to release their pokémon; we'll show them how horrible it is for pokémon to be captured in their dreams!"

The Munna was panicking by now, begging for help. "You can't manipulate people into releasing their pokémon!" said Black. "That's as bad as forcing them to do so. Why don't you just try reason instead? By the way, you're squeezing that Munna way too hard."

"We can do whatever we want, brat!" spat the left grunt. "Sage Rood's orders are much more important than whatever you say."

"Come on, spit out that Dream Mist!" the right grunt yelled at the Munna, who started crying.

Boreas couldn't ignore the cries for help. He ran at the Team Plasma grunt and climbed up in his clothing, noticing that the grey costume provided an excellent climbing surface. He scratched the human's face when he reached it, drawing a little blood and making the startled grunt yelp and let go of the Munna. The piglet tried to float away, but in her panic and pain she couldn't levitate properly. Fortunately Bianca managed to catch her while Boreas ran back to Black.

The two grunts approached Bianca threateningly, so Black and his pokémon stepped in front of her. "Out of the way, brat!" shouted the one grunt. "You have no idea about the trouble you're getting yourself and your girlfriend in. Hand over the Munna, and you needn't get hurt."

"You're not touching that Munna," said Black resolutely. "Now get the hell out of here." Boreas growled to help repel the grunts, confident his thirty centimetres made him a terrifying threat.

"Y-yeah," Bianca stammered.

The Team Plasma grunts threw their pokéballs to release a Patrat and two Purrloins, one male and one female. "I warn you, brat, don't act tough just because you may have won some of the fake battles that you trainers fight. We, Team Plasma, don't just fight for badges like you selfish trainers, but for the liberty of pokémon everywhere. So our resolve is unending, and if you stand in our way, we'll kill both you and your pokémon!"

Boreas felt like running away now, as he really didn't want to die. He hadn't thought these guys would actually be willing to go that far. But he saw Black and Octa weren't wavering and swallowed his fear, as he wanted to abandon them even less. And Octa was so strong and smart; Boreas would probably be safe while he was there.

"I told you: You're not touching that Munna! Threats won't help you."

"Then you brought it to yourself, brat! Pokémon, get 'em!"

"Whaaaat! Don't hurt Black!" Bianca cried.

"I take it you don't care that I have only two pokémon and you three?" Black said with a sly smile.

"Ha! Team Plasma doesn't play by the rules! You should've thought of being outnumbered before you challenged us, brat! A Snivy and a Lillipup aren't gonna stop us!"

"_Lillipup_?" Boreas snarled. "Is that supposed to be an insult towards my tail?"

"Good." said Black. "Then I don't need to feel guilty about outnumbering you myself. Bianca, I could use some help."

"O-okay." Bianca stuttered. "Oshy, Puppy, go, but be c-careful."

"Boreas, Puppy!" Octa commanded. "Fight together against one of them, Oshy and I shall each fight one of the others!"

The male Purrloin rapidly jumped at Boreas, who tried to dodge but failed. He received a painful scratch in his side and tried to counter it with a Tackle. He was joined by Puppy, who also Tackled the cat.

It tried its best not to be surrounded by the two canines and to play them out against each other, but Boreas made sure to constantly outmanoeuvre it by outflanking it, keeping it between Puppy and himself. The Purrloin just didn't stand a chance against two enemies, and quickly lost. Octa and Oshy had already beaten their opponents.

A silence fell as the grunts didn't seem to know what to do next, until it was suddenly broken by Bianca: "YAHOO! YES! We won!"

"That..." said Boreas. "Was easy. That was ridiculously easy; these guys were no threat at all despite their tough talk!"

The one grunt spoke up. "...I can't believe we lost. But we have to obtain the Dream Mist! Please, give us that Munna! Pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease!"

"Knock it off!" said Bianca. "You're not getting the Munna, and that's that."

"But that's weird," reasoned Boreas, "these guys can't be all they have; there's got to be someone with stronger pokémon with them..."

Suddenly an old man with greying blond hair wearing long, red clothing appeared out of nowhere. "What are you two doing goofing off?" he thundered with a heavy Dutch accent.

"Ah," mumbled Boreas, "there we go."

"S-S-Sage Rood!" the grunts yelped. "W-We didn't mean to- We didn't know you were- It was an accident- It was HIS fault!"

Rood disappeared and reappeared on the grunts' other side. "Stilte! We, Team Plasma, shall separate pokémon from foolish humans!"

He disappeared and reappeared again. "If you can't fulfil your duties..."

"W-we're so sorry!"

"Get out of here now, and never let me see you again!" he disappeared, and the Team Plasma grunts ran off.

"Woah," said Black. "That was weird."

"Yeah," said Boreas.

A Musharna floated out of the bushes. "Thank you for saving my daughter from those people," she said.

"Mummy!" the Munna floated out of Bianca's hands to hug her mother.

"A Musharna!" said Black. "Then was that Rood-fellow an illusion made by it?"

Munna and Musharna began floating off, but Bianca called after them. "Heey, we need your help too! We need some Dream Mist!"

Musharna blew a big cloud of pink vapour from its nose, and Bianca quickly captured it in a glass pot that Fennel had given her. "Thanks! Black, why don't you take it to Fennel? I want to catch a Munna too; I think they're cute. So I'm staying here to find one. Will I see you at the pokécenter?"

"I've got a better idea: come to the Gym when you've caught your Munna."

"You're going to challenge the Gym today? It's already getting dark."

"I don't want to spend more time than is strictly necessary in Striaton. I don't like this city very much, and I believe the feeling is mutual."

"You seemed to quite like Fennel, though," Bianca winked. "Maybe you'll have time to listen to her tell that story about this villa yet?"

–

RERUN COMMENTARY: From chapters like this you can see quite well how Boreas and Octa's characters developed over time. And I'm not talking about the big 'overcoming their flaws' kind of stuff, but the more understated development of simply growing up. The fact of the matter is, that Boreas is very young and childlike at this point, while Octa is essentially a teenager in his species' terms. The great difference between cub Boreas and adult Boreas is very noticeable in most chapters, but the difference between young Octa and adult Octa comes to the fore less often, but is quite noticeable in this chapter, I think.


	7. Triple Trouble!

Chapter Seven: Triple Trouble!

When they arrived at the Gym, Black looked as nervous as Boreas felt. The Gym was a plain grey stone building like every other structure in Striaton, the only difference being that it had the word 'GYM' engraved above the door. There were also colourful paintings of pokémon on the windows that looked very pretty with the light from inside shining through. When he reached the closed door, Black paused for a moment, breathed deeply, and entered.

To their great surprise, the door into the Gym actually led into a restaurant. People were eating at tables and waiters walked around serving them.

"Do you have a reservation, sir?" Black made a little jump of shock when a waiter standing next to the door spoke to him.

"Uh... I think I may have taken a wrong turn somewhere," Black explained. Then he saw Bianca sitting alone at a table, waving at him. "Or maybe not. Excuse me." He walked to Bianca and joined her at the table.

"Hey, Black," she greeted, "cute place, huh?"

"I suppose," Black shrugged. "But I wasn't really looking for a place to eat. I want to challenge the Gym."

Bianca chuckled. "That's good, because-"

A waiter with fiery red hair showed up next to the table. "Hi Bianca," he lilted, "and hi, I'm Chili and I'll be your waiter this evening!" he introduced himself to Black.

"I'm sorry," Black apologised, "but I don't actually want to eat here. I'm on my way to the Gym and accidentally wandered into your restaurant."

Bianca and Chili both laughed. "This IS the Gym!" Chili exclaimed. "And I'm the Gym Leader!"

Suddenly two other waiters who looked just like Chili except for their hair styles and colours stood beside him.

"My name is Cress, and I'm the Gym Leader as well," the waiter with wavy blue hair said. "Pleased to make your acquaintance."

"And I'm..." the waiter with spiky green hair mumbled. "Uh... Cilan... And I'm... uh... The Gym Leader too."

"Great!" Chili said, grabbing a pokéball from his belt, "A challenger! Then let's get right to it!"

Cress placed his hand on Chili's shoulder. "Calm down. Regardless of whether or not this gentleman wishes to challenge the Gym, he is still our guest here so we'll serve him first."

"So this really isthe Gym?" Black asked.

"Of course it is!" Chili exclaimed.

"Wow, it's... Uh... Different than I expected a Gym to be like."

"That's because it's also a restaurant!" Bianca said.

"You don't say..." Octa mumbled.

"Um..." Cilan said. "It actually used to be just a restaurant... But the three of us also like pokémon... And we're pretty good at battling, so..."

"Pretty good?" Chili vociferated. "We're blazingly amazing!"

"I agree with Chili's assessment," Cress spoke. "But this is no time to discuss battling. We shall bring you our menu charts, and four pokémon chairs so you companions can join you."

"And... Um... After dinner..."

"It's time to battle! Yeah!"

–

After Boreas finished eating his delicious lasagna, he saw how much of the sauce was still left on the plate and tried to start licking it off when he was stopped by a hand on his shoulder. "Please, my dear fellow, I implore you not to start licking off your plate. Have some respect for civilisation and the basic table manners that come with it."

"But I still have sauce left," Boreas pouted.

"Nevertheless, Attila the Hun would have considered the way you ate a disgrace already. Don't make it even worse."

Boreas sighed. "Okay."

Octa sipped from his glass of wine. "Oh, and incidentally, you've got sauce in your fur."

Boreas wiped his face with his paws. "Better?"

"Worse," said Octa. "You just spread it out."

Eventually Boreas got the sauce off his face and Octa finished his small glass of wine, making a big show of tasting it to Black's great amusement. "Why are you drinking that stuff anyway?" Boreas asked. "It smells vile."

"I beg your pardon? I drink it, for wine is what makes the difference between supper and dinner and between lunch and luncheon."

"What about breakfast?"

"Well, I suppose it also makes the difference between breakfast and alcoholism, but that is beside the point."

The moment everyone was done eating, Chili appeared next to the table. "Finally finished? Then it's time to battle!"

Black, Octa, and Boreas stood up. "All right. Cilan, I challenge you to a battle!" said Black.

"Uh... Me?" Cilan said surprised.

"I'm afraid you misunderstand," spoke Cress. "Cilan is not the only Gym Leader here; all three of us are. Therefore you don't challenge one of us, but all three."

"All three?" Black asked.

"Yeah!" Chili rabbited. "And we get to decide whom you battle! And as you have a Snivy, the Fire-type scorcher Chili -that's me- will be your opponent!"

"Fire?" Octa almost looked scared for a moment, before regaining his composure. "Hmpf, Fortune vomits on my eiderdown once more."

"Grass-types like you are weak to fire, aren't you?" Boreas asked.

"Yes, _thank you_, I know that," Octa sneered.

"That messes up our plan, doesn't it?"

"When you have finished kicking in open doors, maybe you can start making useful observations."

Boreas was getting quite fed up with Octa's sudden irritability. "Look, don't vent it on me if you're scared!"

Octa sniffed haughtily. "Scared? I'm not frightened, not in the least! I laugh in the face of fear and tweak the nose of terror!"

"Good," Boreas sneered. "Then stop whining and help think of some way to win this."

Black stood up from the table. "Then I challenge you to a battle. Type disadvantage or not, I will win."

"Then it's time to burninate!" Chili shouted, quickly drawing a pokéball. "Prepare to-"

"Not yet," Cress interrupted. "First we clear a space for the battle. Help me move some tables."

The three siblings and the other waiters cleared a roughly circular space about six metres across. With the battlefield clear, the rest of the restaurant was packed tightly with tables. Dinner guests were getting interested in the upcoming battle and moved to the tables around the circle. Boreas was getting very nervous as he realised that with Octa weak against fire, the battle's outcome depended on him. Did he even stand a chance? It seemed unlikely. He hoped he would lose only by a little, instead of the horrible and embarrassing failure that seemed so much more likely.

When the circle had been cleared, Black and Chili stood on opposite ends of it. Cress stood to the side of the circle. "I will be the judge of this battle," he spoke. "The challenger and Gym Leader Chili shall both use two pokémon. They are not allowed to use items, and a pokémon that has been switched out counts as having been defeated. Begin the battle!"

"YEEEEEHOOOOW!" Chili yelled as he tossed his pokéball. "Time to play with FIRE!"

As a Lillipup was released from Chili's pokéball, Black ordered Octa to battle. "Octa, show him what you've got!"

Octa saluted his foe with an elaborate bow. "With pleasure."

Though Boreas realised it was better strategy to have Octa battle Chili's Lillipup and Boreas whatever fire-type he used, he didn't like it at all. A Lillipup didn't seem like such a threat, for even if this one turned out to be very powerful, at least he knew what to expect. While he could only picture his opponent as some scary, large flamy entity that wanted to eat him. He shivered and brushed against Black's leg.

"Cinder!" Chili ordered. "Start off with Work Up!"

"Octa, Growth!" Black ordered.

As Cinder did a few quick pacing exercises and fake attacks, Octa stood serenely still with his eyes closed as long vines grew from his hands and tail. After both prepared for the battle in this manner, Chili ordered Cinder to use Bite.

"Octa, keep it at a distance with Vine Whip! Don't let it get to you!" Black ordered.

"I'm way ahead of you, old chap," said Octa.

As Cinder charged Octa, he tried to strike her, but with several rapid ducks she dodged Octa's vines and pounced him. Octa dodges the attack by making an odd sort of pirouette.

Boreas chuckled. "Are you taking up ballet now?"

As Cinder turned around to try again, Octa's tail vine hit her hard, and Boreas cheered. Cinder feinted to the left and gave Octa a nasty bite on the arm as he moved to dodge it. With a yelp, he slapped her with his vines and followed it up with a Leaf Tornado that barely hit her. The two combatants circled each other, both very alert and ready to dodge the other's attack and follow it up with their own. When it became apparent after a few seconds of this that neither was going to attack first, Octa smiled. "We shall see who has the most patience, shan't we?"

"Cinder!" Chili shouted. "Bite it, now!"

As Cinder lunged to bite Octa, he dodged it with a quick roll and countered with Vine Whips from all three vines. Cinder collapsed when the hits connected. "Gym Leader Chili's Lillipup is unable to battle. The score is 1-0 in favour of challenger Black," Cress announced.

"Great job, Octa!" Boreas cheered as Octa bowed to the applauding audience.

"Woohoo!" Bianca wooped. "That showed him!"

"It's not over yet!" Chili shouted. "One more left, this is where I give it my all! Go, Trogdor!"

The arrogant, prideful manner Octa had adopted after beating Cinder made way for obvious fear as Chili threw his pokéball and a Pansear appeared. "I shall endeavour to tire it, my dear fellow," said Octa, "but I'm afraid you'll have to do the main battling."

"Octa, show the monkey who's boss with Vine Whip!"

"Trogdor, start off with Work Up!"

As Trogdor did some exercises his whorled, flamelike hair glowed with fiery energy. Octa whipped him with his vines, but he hardly reacted. Boreas swallowed a lump in his throat, terrified to have to fight the fiery monkey. Then Trogdor spit a beam of fire at Octa, who was engulfed by them. When the smoke subsided, Octa was still standing, though charred and in obvious pain. "Not bad. You might actually stand a small chance against my friend," he said calmly.

Trogdor spit fire at Octa again, but he dodged it and rapidly slithered behind Trogdor and slapped him on the back of the head, obviously aiming to annoy rather than hurt. "Then again, that may just be wishful thinking."

Octa rapidly slithered away to dodge another Incinerate. "Come on, I haven't got all day, you know. I'd like you to beat me so I can enjoy watching Boreas utterly vanquish you."

Nimbly dodging Pansear's flames to slap him again: "If you can't even defeat a grass-type such as me, what chance do you have against him?"

But as Octa slapped Trogdor in the back of the head, he turned around very fast, grabbed a hold of Octa, and threw him to the ground, immediately following it up with another Incinerate that completely engulfed him.

"Octa!" Boreas gasped.

When the attack finished, Octa lay on the ground, seared and still smouldering. "He's all yours, my dear fellow," he coughed.

"Challenger Black's Snivy is unable to battle. The score is 1-1. The next knock-out wins the battle!"

"Boreas," Black said as he picked up Octa, "it's your turn. Do your best!"

Feeling like a piece of ore about to enter the blast furnace, Boreas stepped forward. Trogdor spit a beam of fire at him, and though it was easy to dodge, the heat he felt scared Boreas. As he charged Trogdor, the monkey shot another beam of fire at him, but this time he had no chance to dodge. The flames' heat was terrible, searing his fur and making him hurt all over. He continued charging with tears of pain in his eyes as Trogdor got ready for another Incinerate. He tried to tackle the monkey, but he dodged him easily and countered with another painful beam of fire. Boreas realised that he would never win the battle like this. _Sand,_ he thought, _I need to do a sand-attack._ But inside the clean restaurant there was obviously no sand around. Then he saw something and had an idea.

He sprinted away from his opponent, to the empty battlefield's edge and jumped on a table, startling its occupants into dropped their wine all over themselves.

"Boreas!" Black called. "Get back into the circle!"

But Boreas' plan was working: Trogdor followed him and jumped onto the table as well. The moment he landed, Boreas swept a pawful of macaroni from one of the plates into his opponents eyes in a blinding Macaroni-Attack. Trogdor was so surprised that he lost his balance and fell backwards off the table, so Boreas jumped off after him as the table's occupants cursed. He landed on top of Trogdor with the vertical equivalent of a Tackle and scratched him good with his claws before his opponent managed to kick him off. Instead of running back into the empty circle though, Boreas ran under the tables, using the seated people's legs for cover. Between the cover and the macaroni stinging in his eyes Trogdor didn't even remotely hit Boreas, only succeeding in searing tablecloths and trousers. When he reached a certain table, Boreas jumped up and dug his claws into the tablecloth, dragging it off the table as Trogdor reached him, so that the large bowl of tamato soup on the table fell all over him.

When Trogdor slowly lifted up the soup bowl, Boreas immediately Tackled him down. That was the last straw after being dowsed with tamato soup: Trogdor didn't get up. It took a moment before Cress managed to get a clear view of the situation under the table, but then he proclaimed: "Gym Leader Chili's Pansear is unable to battle! Challenger Black has won the match with a score of 2-1!"

_I did it!_ Boreas thought, as happy as a mouse who has just found a tunnel into a cheese factory. He appeared from under the table and was picked up and hugged by Black. "Great work, Boreas! We won!"

Boreas remained in Black's arms as Octa, looking a lot better after drinking some fresh water, joined him there. "Excellent work, my dear fellow. That was quite a clever trick you used. 'Tis a shame I didn't think of it myself."

As Cress and Cilan calmed down the angry patrons whose food had been used as a weapon or whose trousers had been set on fire, Chili yelled: "You got me. I! Am! Burned! Out! Whoo-hoo! You're on fire! Take this Gym Badge!"

He tossed a small metal badge to Black, who handily caught it. Bianca joined Black to celebrate. "That was awesome, Black!" she rambled. "It was so cool how your pokémon just, like, defeated his! I was worried you might lose at several points, but you won! Hehe, Boreas, you're a crafty little guy, aren't you? I'm inspired now, I think I'll challenge Cilan again when he's done apologising to that lady whose macaroni was used as a projectile. With Munny as my new team member, I think I can beat him!"

–

FEEDBACK: Plainwinds: "Hello! Nice story you've got going here. Very amusing title."

Thanks! The title was actually a last-minute thing. I had finished chapter one and was all ready to post it, but of course it asked for a title for the story and I didn't have any. So after about fifteen minutes of trying to think of a title, I just decided to watch an episode of That Mitchell & Webb Look (An awesome british sketch comedy show) instead. One of their running gags, The Surprising Adventures of Sir Digby Chicken-Caesar was one of the sketches in that particular episode, and that inspired me to name the story this way.

"What I like about your story is the humor you put in it, and I also like so far what you are doing with your characters. Octa would probably be my favorite character so far."

Thanks, it's good to hear people enjoy the humour and the characters (Octa seems to be rather popular).

"Your first chapter was good and attention grabbing, but I think you could have done a little more with the second chapter to make it a little longer. The second chapter started out nicely, some good banter about sausages. (sausages which I don't think a "few months old" eevee would be able to identify as such due to assumed lack of contact with humans, but I'm being nitpicky here.) But then a couple of zangoose (Is the plural for zangoose, zangoose?) murder their parents. Not the most original, but this is your first pokemon fiction. "

Flora, their mother, once stole a picnic basket from some humans. That's how they knew what a sausage was.

I've been wondering about the plural for Zangoose too. Zangoose? Zangooses? Zangeese?

I suppose you're right that the story starting with the main character's family dying is a bit cliché perhaps. I also agree that chapter 2 might've been longer considering how important it is. If I ever do a rewrite of this story (I've been known to do them occasionally) I think I may expand it.

REWRITE COMMENTARY: And here we are on the rewrite. I didn't expand chapter 2 a lot, though I think the expansion I did put in it helps flesh out Boreas and Zeph better than before. If I was truly redoing the story, I would probably have actually put in a few chapters of just Eevee Boreas and his family, and not have them die until like chapter five or so to make you feel Boreas' grief more. But I don't want to make huge revisions to the story, so that didn't happen. Anyway, we're here at the end of part one, though I didn't know that yet at the time of writing, and also at the end of the chapters I rewrote while on vacation in Greece. I'll try to keep up rewriting when I'm back home.


	8. Dire Difficulties at the Daycare

Part Two: The Daycare, the Thieves, and the Scientist

Chapter Eight: Dire Difficulties at the Day Care

The morning after their victories against the Gym leaders, Black and Bianca left Striaton City, only stopping to leave a message for Cheren with Nurse Despair. On the first day, Route 3 was a straight, paved road running through short grasslands. But as they approached the hills it led to, the road roughened and become less neat, showing cracks where trees had dug their roots under it. The grassland on both sides of the road gave way to a forest that looked rougher every day. After several days it was obvious Route 3 was hardly ever travelled upon; they hadn't seen anyone else or any vehicles for days. When they entered the hills, the road stopped pretending to be a road at all and just became a rough, unpaved, winding trail through the forested hills. Small streams cabbled down the hills and crossed the trail, and sometimes a dead tree blocked it. They saw a lot of wild pokémon, but neither Bianca nor Black managed to capture any.

After a week's travel through steadily increasing wilderness it seemed like they were completely in the middle of nowhere. So it was rather surprising when suddenly five people in red clothing jumped out of the bushes around the road. Their pokémon jumped out along with them, surrounding Black, Bianca, and their pokémon.

"Eep!" Bianca shrieked. "Don't hurt us!"

"W-what do you want?" Black stuttered.

Boreas growled at the pokémon, but they growled back, so he stopped.

"That's just what we were going to ask you," one of the humans said.

"We're just travelling to Nacrene."

"Over Route 3?"

"How else?"

"Most people take the train or the highway if they need to go to Nacrene."

"What does it matter? We're just travelling on the road, so let us go!"

"Come with us."

"No. Why?"

"Because you don't have a choice. If you're not pokémon thieves you have nothing to fear."

They could do nothing but follow their captors. They were taken through the forest until they entered a large open estate. They were led to several big wooden buildings in the middle of the fields. A few pokémon and trainers were playing or training on the estate, eyeing them angrily as they passed. Their captors made them enter the largest of the buildings, which turned out to be a large, comfy house.

"Nestor! Getrude! We may have caught some pokémon thieves!" the leader of their captors shouted.

"We're _not_ pokémon thieves," Black grumbled for the umptillionth time, "we were just passing by."

An old couple wearing overalls entered the room. "Well, well, well," The old lady pointed. "What have we here? Come to steal people's pokémon again, haven't you?"

"No, we haven't! We were just passing by over the road when these people suddenly jumped out of the bushes and forced us to come here."

"What were you doing there if you weren't planning to kidnap the pokémon here?"

"We are trainers on a journey to defeat all Gym Leaders. We have earned the Trio badge in Striaton City, so now we're going to Nacrene, and frankly I had no idea that walking past a place nowadays means you're a pokémon thief. The only kidnappers here are these people."

"So you're saying you aren't with Team Plasma?" the old man asked with a frown.

"Team Plasma? Have they been stealing pokémon here?"

The old couple nodded. ""I suppose we'll have to consider you innocent until proven guilty," the old man said. "I'm sorry about troubling you like this, but we have no choice, y'see."

"Hmpf," the old lady said. "I suppose you may be innocent, but we'll keep an eye on you while you're here."

The trainers that had captured them apologised and left. "Okay," Black sighed, "now it's our turn to ask a question: who are you, what's going on here, and what has Team Plasma been up to?"

"I guess we owe you some answers after that trouble. This here's a pokémon daycare. We have been running it for forty years now. Trainers bring their pokémon to us, and we'll take care of them and train them for a while. Sometimes the trainers themselves stay around to help us or to just have a vacation with their pokémon; if they don't stay we charge some fees. Some trainers have us take care of their pokémon to give them some rest, some to train them, and some to have them breed."

"Ew," said Boreas.

"About two months ago an old Dutchman named Rood visited us. I gave him a tour of the daycare and asked if he wanted us to raise any of his pokémon, but then he started arguing with me. He said all these pokémon were captives and slaves, and that the cubs born here would live their entire lives in captivity unless something was done about it. He asked me to release all the pokémon here, especially newborns, into the wild. Of course, I politely refused and told him that while he made some good arguments I didn't agree."

The daycare lady nodded. "That's when the trouble started. A few days after that crazy Dutch bastard had stomped off, he returned with some lackeys. They called him 'Sage' Rood, and he said he was one of the leaders of an organisation named Team Plasma, and that he would ask us politely to set the pokémon free one more time before they would take matters into their own hands. So we told him that the pokémon here weren't even ours, so that it wasn't our choice to make and that threats would take them nowhere. A few days later they raided us, took a dozen pokémon and four eggs." Her eyes were getting misty. "It was so heart-breaking when their trainers came back for them and we had to tell them. We greatly improved security around here, and everyone who works here now takes shifts patrolling the estate, but it's not enough. Every week or so, they manage to kidnap a pokémon or steal an egg, b-but-" as though as the daycare lady seemed, she was breaking up in tears now.

Her husband put a hand on her shoulder. "Calm down, dear. We tried to find their hideout, of course, and we tried to call for help, but they are too good at hiding and we're too far away from everything for much help to come. First they only kidnapped the pokémon, but two weeks ago they actually crossed the line into killing them: an egg disappeared, and we found it's broken and empty shell not too far away. That's happened every night since then: an egg or cub disappears, and we find the remains." He was breaking up too now. "I-I just don't understand it. Why would anyone kill a young pokémon? Especially when they claim to be liberating them? I-I just don't think we can continue running the daycare if this goes on, it wouldn't be right. If this continue, the only thing we can do is close shop."

"Bloody Plasma," Black seethed, "what they tried to do in Striaton was one thing, but stealing and killing pokémon? I don't care about your inhospitable welcome, I'm not letting them get away with this! I'm going to help you catch them."

"Th-thank you, but they cover their tracks well. It won't be easy."

"We'll have to try. You said they always come at night. So I'll wait for the early morning, when the trail is fresh. Maybe we can follow them, or perhaps my Eevee can pick up their scent. Bianca, are you helping too?"

After a moment's doubt, Bianca agreed. "Yes. You're right, we have to catch them. So what do we do until morning?"

"Feel free to rest here until then," the daycare lady said happily. "You're welcome to join us for dinner at seven. Other than that you can do whatever you want. That goes for your pokémon too."

–

_Present_

"I don't see why your trainer offered to help those people out," said Aqua.

Boreas squinted in surprise. "Because Plasma was stealing pokémon, obviously."

"I know, but wouldn't it have been more prudent to tell them to close shop? They were putting the lives of the pokémon in their care at risk by continuing their day care. Plus, Team Plasma had a point: it seems wrong and dangerous to have humans raise young pokémon."

That option had never entered Boreas' mind at the time, and he didn't like it right now. "Because you can't give in to people blackmailing you. Plus, those pokémon were the friends of trainers who had left them in the old couple's care. They would be betraying that trust if they just let them into the wild."

"Hmm. But weren't they betraying that trust in the first place by continuing to run their operation after it had proved to be dangerous to the pokémon in their care in the first place?"

"It was only dangerous because of Team Plasma!"

"Right," Aqua said without any trace of getting his point. "Also," she continued, "they kidnapped innocent travellers for no reason at all. Is that a normal human reaction to all problems?"

"Look, they just got us to go with them for- what do you mean a normal human reaction?"

"Well," said Aqua innocently, "it seems to me humans in general have as their standard plan for solving any trouble 'capture someone against their will'. They do it to pokémon all the time; it's reassuring in a way that they do it to other humans as well."

"No, they- Well, yes, but- Look, they-" Boreas sighed. He wasn't sure what to say; as fun as Aqua was to talk to, her strange opinions also made it a little trying to argue. She had the wits to back them up, though; a fierce intelligence hid behind her deep dark eyes. "Look, why don't I continue telling you what happened? It will probably convince you anyway, so let's argue about it later."

Aqua giggled. "Don't count on it, but go ahead and tell me more. It's fun to listen to."

–

_Present_

Octa nudged Boreas. "My dear fellow, don't you think it's odd that Plasma should kill juveniles and destroy eggs? I mean, think about it, it seems to conflict with their stated goals."

"What do you mean?" Boreas asked.

"It seems to me that - while Plasma is quite obviously responsible for the kidnapped pokémon - the dying juveniles don't sound like the work of humans. Why would they destroy eggs and only leave the scales? I would rather attribute those events to a predatory pokémon taking advantage of all the humans here being too busy protecting the daycare from Team Plasma to protect against predators as well."

Raging, boiling anger at the thought of a predator preying on the young boiled up in Boreas. "You're right! It must be some cowardly predatory monster that preys on those who are too weak to fight back. I can't wait for tomorrow when we go after it, I'll show it!"

"Calm yourself down, my dear fellow, we aren't going to trail our hypothetical predator, we have to find Team Plasma."

"Team Plasma can wait," snarled Boreas. "The evil predator that killed the young will pay for what they did!"

Octa sighed. "We are not talking about the pokémon that killed your family."

"I KNOW!" Boreas shouted.

"Starting a misplaced vendetta against them shan't help us, then, nor would it be advisable to do so even if we didn't have better things to do."

"But we can't just let them go, they're the same kind of lowlife murdering bastards as the Zangeese that killed my family! We can't just let the evil coward go!"

"To prey upon the weaker members of a species is not cowardice, it is quite simply biological necessity and good tactics. A predator who preyed only upon prey that has a good chance of killing him would not live long."

Boreas couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Are you actually defending them?!"

"No, I am merely making you put things into perspective to prevent you from seeking meaningless vengeance. When your parents returned home from a hunt with meat to feed you with, do you think they bravely slew a mighty Salamence? Of course not, they will have preyed upon something weak, like Patrat or Zigzagoon. They will likely have sought out weaker members of those species such as the young and the sick-"

"DON'T YOU TALK LIKE THAT ABOUT MY PARENTS!" Boreas shouted.

Octa was getting rather vexed himself. "I am not insulting your parents, I am simply speaking the truth to prevent you from acting like an imbecile. It is not evil to be a natural part of the food chain! I understand you are upset, but please think about it. One can't live without eating, you can hardly blame them for that."

Logic and anger duelled in Boreas' head. While Octa's words were sensible and logical he just couldn't accept them. "No! You're wrong about it all. Whoever is eating those eggs and young is an evil coward, and so were the Zangeese that killed my family, and I will make them pay for what they have done!"

Octa gave Boreas a disdainful look. "How disappointing. I had thought you were more intelligent than that, despite your uncertain ancestry. But perhaps I was mistaken."

"Just shut up, you arrogant git, and stop insulting my family!"

"Hmpf, perhaps my great-aunt Galaxia is right. Perhaps one blessed with good ancestry such as me really shouldn't mingle with common pokémon like you! Good day!" Furious at each other, they walked off in different directions.

–

REWRITE NOTES: For some reason, when I was originally writing these chapters, I didn't include a scene set in the present at all between chapters 4 and 12. So I've added a bonus scene to this chapter, since it was very short anyway, and seemed like the right point to have Boreas and Aqua discuss their pretty major philosophical differences, instead of just having the flashforward scene be a silly romantic interlude like they have a bit of a tendency to be.


	9. Predator

Chapter Nine: Predator

"Wake up, Boreas!" a voice said, awakening Boreas from his dreamless sleep. "Team Plasma has taken a Pidove, if we leave now we may be able to tail them."

Boreas opened his eyes and saw Black trying to awaken him, looking both sleepy and agitated. He got up and followed Black outside, where it was still dark, though the sky had a slight shade of dark blue instead of black. Octa gave him a cold stare and for a moment Boreas couldn't quite remember what his problem was and why he felt like he should return the Snivy's stare. Then he remembered and his heart pounded with anger.

_No,_ he thought, trying to keep his anger under control. _He's giving me that calm, icy anger. I'll show him I can do that too._

He managed to keep a poker face, hiding his anger and returning Octa's haughty stare without a word. Yet aside from the anger, he also felt some regret. He couldn't help thinking that Octa was at least a bit right and that he was being irrational and that he should just apologise to his friend.

_He's _not _my friend!_ Boreas angrily thought. A_nd even if he _were_ right, I'm not apologising to him after he insulted me and my family. He's the one who should be apologising._

_I was pretty stubborn and stupid, though. And maybe we really should focus on Team Plasma, rather than some predator._

_No way! Team Plasma only kidnaps pokémon, while the predator actually kills them, like they did to Mum and Dad! I can't let them get away with it!_

Following Black, they had reached one of the stables, where Bianca, who looked like she was sleeping standing upright, and her pokémon seemed to be investigating. "Bianca," Black asked, "have you found a trail yet?"

"Buh!" Bianca startled. "Oh, it's you. No, we haven't. Just the place where it happened."

The spot was littered with grey feathers and bloodstains. "Perhaps Boreas can smell Plasma's trail," Black said.

"I wouldn't count on it," Octa said with an icy edge to his voice.

Boreas furiously turned to him to tell him to shut up, but caught himself, remembering to stay as calm as Octa was. Octa gave him an infuriatingly arrogant grin, but he managed to stay calm and just started smelling around, trying to pick up a scent. Apart from the Pidove, he could smell a faint whiff that smelt a bit like burning.

"To prevent us from chasing after something blindly," Octa spoke to Oshy, "like some simple impulsive fool who doesn't have his emotions under control, let us ask the other pokémon here if they saw something."

While Boreas tried to ignore Octa and find the scent of their enemy, Black and Bianca tried to find other clues with their flashlights and Munny's Flash. Octa interrogated the other pokémon in the stable. It soon turned out only one of them, a Torchic, had seen anything as she had awakened a moment before the Pidove had been killed. "Oh, it was horrible! It was completely dark, but then a blinking set of monstrous teeth flashed, and bit right through his throat! And before I could even cry out in shock, both had disappeared into the darkness!"

"It must've been Giratina!" a Linoone cried.

"It's come to take us all to the Distortion World!"

"Oh, Arceus help us!"

"We're going to die! Or worse!"

"Calm down, gentlemen." Octa said. "If you can't control your emotions in favour of logic you shall only be a danger to yourselves and others. To assume that Giratina itself appeared here to eat a simple Pidove when a much more mundane predator might have done the same is, quite frankly, almost as silly as someone pursuing vengeance against a person who has never even wronged them, for something that another did."

"Oshy," Boreas said, grappling with keeping a calm appearance like someone grapples with a lost piece of soap in the bath, "would you please tell our local narcissistic windbag to shut his self-absorbed mouth and stop distracting me while I'm trying to bring justice to someone who clearly deserves it."

"Yes Oshy," Octa said, "and while you're at it, could you tell a certain unrefined simpleton to do something productive instead of attempting to avenge his poorly-bred family by killing someone who had no idea they even existed?"

Boreas wanted to respond, but Puppy interrupted him. "Look, would you two like to be left alone for a while so you can talk this out?"

"No," both firmly said.

"At least you agree on that," Puppy sighed. "Stop drawing Oshy and me into your quarrel."

Continuing to search for a trail, Boreas finally caught a faint whiff of the familiar odour that hang around in the stable too. He called the humans, and they followed him as he followed the faint trail across the clearing. Black stopped when he noticed Octa wasn't following. "Octa, don't be afraid! Come on!"

"Afraid?" Octa sniffed haughtily. "I'm not afraid, you just shan't find Plasma following him."

"Yes," Black said as he picked Octa up and put him on his shoulder, "you're right. It'll be dangerous, but we have to go on. We won't let them get away with what they've done."

"That's not what- Hmpf, fine."

The trail quickly led into the forest. Occasionally a feather lay on the ground, indicating they were still on the right trail. As they followed the trail through the forest, the sky slowly turned dark blue and then orange. Finally, in a tiny clearing, they saw a dark, tough-looking canine about twice Boreas' size eating from a dead Pidove.

"A Houndour?" Black whispered in surprise. "Then this wasn't the work of Plasma? That was a waste of- Boreas, come back!"

A crimson wave of burning rage flooded Boreas' mind. He hated the Houndour with a burning passion like a supernova and the only thing he wanted to do was to hurt the Houndour, rip its throat out, and kill it to avenge all that he'd lost. He ran out from the cover of the foliage at the eating Houndour, who only heard him coming at the last moment and let off a surprised "What the-" before Boreas Tackled into its side, knocking him away from the prey and down to the ground. Before the Houndour could react, Boreas jumped onto it, trying to dig his short claws into its flesh and bite its neck to deliver the killing blow.

One moment before Boreas' jaws would have closed around the Houndour's throat it managed to stop him with its paws with phenomenal strength. No matter how hard Boreas struggled in his rage, the Houndour was about twice as big and heavy as hi,, so it managed to keep him away from its throat and threw him off in the ensuing struggle.

"What the hell did I ever do to you?" The Houndour roared. "Or d'you just have a death wish?"

Boreas didn't say anything, but jumped back on his feet and tried to kill the Houndour again in blind fury, but this time it easily saw him coming and bit Boreas' leg in defence.

"Octa, Wrap both of them! Break it up!" shouted Black.

Octa's vines wrapped themselves around Boreas and the Houndour, separating them by force. Boreas struggled against the vines and bit into them in a desperate attempt to reach the Houndour, but he couldn't win. Aware that he would never get to avenge his family, and that even if he did, it wouldn't really matter as it wouldn't bring them back, all his raging fury turned into sorrow, and he started crying. He was vaguely aware that Black threw a pokéball, trying to catch the Houndour, but he just didn't care any more.

–

It was late in the morning by the time they returned to the daycare, Boreas still crying in Black's arms. Black put him on the ground next to Octa, and said "I guess it's time to really introduce you to each other, since you've only met in battle." He released the Houndour from its pokéball.

"Octa, Boreas, this is Lucius. Lucius, these are Octa and Boreas."

Octa extended his hand. "A good morning to you, sir. My name is actually Octavianus, but I find that rather too sesquipedalian for regular usage."

Lucius just stared at him. "What?"

"I said my name is actually-"

"Yeah, and don't you wish you hadn't? Anyway, what's the matter with that that other guy? First he tries to kill me outta the blue, and now he's snivelling."

"My parents were killed!" Boreas wailed.

"Life is unfair, kid," Lucius said without even a grain of the sympathy Boreas felt he deserved. "Kill yourself or get over it, but don't be whiny. Now I'm gonna find some food, so see you later."

_How can he not feel sorry for me?_ Boreas thought.

_But perhaps he's right. Remember what Octa said about everyone needing to eat? The Zangeese and Lucius all needed to eat too. If the world's really so unfair, what use is feeling sorry for myself? Maybe I really should try to get over it. I _have_ been acting a bit whiny lately._

_No! He's a murderer! And my family are all dead!_

_I didn't try to kill him because he preyed on the pokémon here at the daycare, though. If I'm honest, I did really go after him out of a misplaced sense of revenge. _

_No! That's not true, it's because he's evil like the Zangeese!_

Boreas took a few deep breaths to calm himself down and tried to be calm and reasonable. _Maybe Lucius and Octa are right. It's been a month since the Zangeese attacked. I shall miss my family forever, but it's time to move on. _At that moment, he wished he and Octa were still friends, so he could talk to him about it.

_Octa insulted me and my family. He may have been right about some things he said, but he's still an arrogant jerk who doesn't deserve to be my friend._

_Maybe I should forgive Octa and ask his foregiveness in return._

But the anger that he'd just managed to get under control slipped from his grip and refused. _I'm not going to crawl back to Octa with my tail between my legs, asking for his forgiveness. Let him forgive me first. And besides, I have more important things to do first. We still haven't stopped Team Plasma from stealing more pokémon._


	10. In Pursuit of Plasma

Chapter Ten: In Pursuit of Plasma

Boreas awoke in the middle of the night by sounds of commotion outside. He had half a mind of just going back to sleep and ignoring it, but figured that if it was Team Plasma stealing pokémon, they had to be stopped. He stretched and ran outside, where he was disappointed not to see Team Plasma, just a single human in dark clothes being taken to the main daycare house, struggling against his captors. The old daycare lady opened the door. "What did you have to wake me for?" she snarled.

"We caught this guy sneaking around!" said one of the daycare workers.

"Ah," the old lady said, "come to steal our pokémon, haven't you?"

"No, I haven't! Let me go!" Boreas thought he recognised the voice, and when he came closer he saw he did indeed.

"Oh yeah?" the old lady asked. "Then what were you doing sneaking around in the forest in the middle of the night?"

"I was looking for nocturnal pokémon!" Cheren said. Boreas realised he had better go get Black or Bianca, so he ran into the house, opening the door by jumping up to the handle and hanging on to it.

"Wake up!" he barked, sprinting into the room. "Cheren is here, and they think he's a pokémon thief!"

"Zzzhuh?" Black mumbled. "I know, be quiet and let me sleep."

"No, you don't understand, Cheren is in trouble!"

"Okay, okay. If you had a nightmare, just sleep under my bed if that makes you feel safer, but be quiet about it..."

"I think Boreas is trying to tell you something," Bianca yawned.

"Yes, that's right! You. Follow. Me," he said, doing his best to portray each word.

"Are you hungry?" Black asked.

"Oh, in the name of Dialga's diapers! Follow me, you dumb apes!"

"I think he wants us to follow him," Bianca said. Boreas sighed in relief. As the two humans got up, Boreas led them outside, where Cheren was still trying to prove his innocence. His face lit up when he saw his friends. "Bianca, Black! Good to see you, could you please tell these..." he swallowed the insult he was going to use after looking around, "...people, that I'm not a pokémon thief?"

"Do you know this... person?" the old lady asked.

"Him?" Black joked. "No, never saw him before."

"But it's- Oh, no, never seen him before either." Bianca grinned, "He looks roguish though, you'd better be very careful around him."

"Ha ha ha," Cheren gnarled. "Hilarious. Now stop it."

"Yeah, he's our friend," Black reassured the daycare lady. "I'm sure he doesn't want to steal the pokémon here."

Cheren angrily pushed himself out of the circle of trainers. "Hmpf, what kind of thing to do to a traveller was that?"

"I'm sorry," The old lady apologised, "we've been having a lot of trouble lately. Y'see-"

Suddenly noise and cries for help came from one of the stables. "Team Plasma!" someone gasped.

All present rushed to the stable, where two Plasma grunts were throwing pokéballs at the pokémon inside. "Quiet, stupid pokémon, we're liberating you! If you make this much noise someone'll hear you!"

The other grunt tapped his colleague on the shoulder. "Uh, Marilyn, I think they already have."

"Palkia's plectrum!" Marylin cursed as she looked about and saw the large group of angry trainers. "Don't try to stop us, it's for their own good!"

"If it really was for their own good," Black said, "to be separated from humans, why do they need you to "free" them by force? Why don't they run away by themselves? And now tell us where your hideout is."

"I don't think so. PLASMAAAAA!" Thick black smoke filled the air as they both threw a small smoke bomb, making it impossible to see. When the smoke cleared after a few minutes of stumbling around and bumping into everyone, the Plasma grunts were nowhere to be found, though Boreas could still hear them running through the forest.

"Quick, let's go after them!" The trainers began running after the fleeing Plasma grunts.

"Wait!" Bianca said. "Black and I are still wearing pyjamas, we can't run through the forest like this!"

"Go back quickly to change then," Cheren offered. "I'll wait for you and my Pidove can keep an eye on the others so we can follow them. As long as you tell me what the hell is going on while we're running."

–

For several hours they followed Cheren's Pidove as she flew after the other trainers through the hills. The sky was already lighting up with the approaching dawn when they saw flashes of light ahead and heard the sounds of combat ahead. When they caught up they saw the other trainers were fighting a gigantic battle against about twenty grunts. Flying pokémon dived into each other in the sky and electric and fire type attacks lighted the battle up with flashes of light. Water and ice-type attacks refracted the glowing sky and the flashes of light in unusually pretty ways, and three dozen trainers shouted commands at the same time.

"Let's join the battle, with our help Plasma will outnumber us only slightly!" Black said, but was stopped by Cheren.

"Hang on one moment. Instead of just charging in, we should try to sneak past and attack them from the rear so we have a tactical advantage."

"Hey, that's a smart idea!" Bianca said. "We'll just, like, walk through the woods and they won't know a thing! We'll completely surprise them!"

"As long as you keep your mouth shut instead of making your usual noise, yes," Cheren hushed.

"Hey! I don't make noise! _You_ make noise! You keep your mouth shut!"

"_Will_ you be _quiet_?"

Black stopped the beginning quarrel. "Ladies, why don't you both shut up and follow me?"

They sneaked through the forest past the massive battle, around the daycare workers and around the grunts. When they were behind the grunts, Black said: "Okay everyone, when I give the word, we all attack."

"Black, old chap," Octa said, "take a look at that cavern over there. It is quite clearly illuminated from the inside. It would not astonish me at all if it were Plasma's hideout."

"Yeah Octa, you're right. You should focus on the Sandiles, as they are at a type disadvantage to you."

With a sigh, Octa extended his tentacles, grabbed Black's head by the temples, and forcibly turned it to make him look at the cave. "Ouch, cut that- hey, look! There's a light in that cave, we should investigate it."

As they neared the cave, four figures, three in grey and one in red, left it. The man in red was an old man with greying blond hair they recognised from the Dreamyard. "A few of those sukkels have managed to get trough!" he said as he saw the trainers from Nuvema. "You, you, and you, deal wit dem!"

"Right away, Sage Rood! PLASMAAAA!" The three grunts threw their pokéballs and sent out a Patrat each.

Black laughed. "Do you really think a trio of Patrats will stop us, Rood?"

But Rood laughed too. "Of course I don't. Dis is just to keep you busy while I finish some administrative work I need to do. I, Rood of the Seven Sages, was once a member of the Elite Four in my homeland. I don't need the protection of mere grunts." His smile broadened when he saw the startled faces of his opponents. "What, you didn't think dis would be easy, did you? I'm going back into the cave now to do some work. When you're done with these guys feel free to come after me if you like. But be warned: I rarely lost as an Elite Four, when I battled trainers who had defeated every Gym Leader in the land. A couple of startups like you don't stand a chance. If you're wise, you'll retreat calmly, before my fire-type pokémon burn you to death." He calmly walked back into the cave.

"Fire," Octa mumbled. "Why does it have to be fire?"

Boreas was afraid of what would be waiting for them in the cave. They were nowhere near ready to battle an Elite Four, even if it was a three on one battle. He threw some sand into a Patrat's eyes when he had an idea.

"Oshy!" he said. "What happens when a pokéball breaks while the pokémon is inside it?"

Dodging a Tackle, Oshy replied: "The pokémon is automatically released... I think."

Disappointed, Boreas continued the battle by Tackling a Patrat. Suddenly another lightbulb started to burn. "But what if only the release mechanism breaks?"

"Then the pokémon is stuck inside, unless the rest of the ball breaks too, in which case it is automatically sent to the PC."

"Thanks!" Boreas ran off, jumping over an attacking Patrat and running between one of the grunts' legs. Black shouted after him to come back, but he ignored him and entered the cave. It was surprisingly small for Team Plasma's hideout. In fact, it was only about ten metres before an underground river filled the rest of the cave. The only thing inside was a big wooden table with a lamp on it. Rood was writing something on a piece of paper. When he heard Boreas enter, he looked up.

"Oh, hallo daar, Eevee. Wat kom je hier zonder je trainer doen? Wil je door Team Plasma bevrijd worden?"

Boreas ignored the old man's unintelligible babbling, picked up the biggest stone he could hold in his front right paw, and ran at Rood.

"Wat doe je nou?"

Boreas climbed into Rood's leg, finding the six pokéballs on his belt, and before the human could react, he smashed the stone sideways into the release button of one of them. A big crack appeared in the button, sparks flew, and the tiny Camerupt inside erupted in anger, but could do nothing about it as it was now stuck inside.

"Verdomme!" Rood yelled as he jumped to his feet, Boreas hanging on to his belt, "Smerige kleine rat, dat zal je bezuren!"

Boreas smashed the release mechanism of a Charizard's pokéball, and was moving on to the Heatmor next to it when a large hand caught his ruff and lifted him. He tried to struggle, but was held too tightly, so instead he threw the stone he was still holding at Rood's face, giving the man a black eye.

"Au! Daar krijg je spijt van, mormel!" Rood said, with a face as red as his clothes as he made a fist to punch Boreas with. Boreas had become very used to humans lately, so he had forgotten how massively big and strong they were. He struggled panicky against Rood's grasp, trying to escape from the punch that would surely shatter every bone in his body. Suddenly two vines slashed through the air. One of them whipped Rood in the face and made him drop Boreas in pain and shock, while the other grabbed a pokéball from his belt and smashed the release mechanism against the cave wall. Immediately, Rood grabbed his last three pokéballs and threw them all at once. A fiery heat washed over Boreas as he turned away to run for the exit, where Octa stood. Boreas didn't care about his stupid argument with Octa any more; he ran at him and pounced him with gratitude. "Thanks. I thought I was going to die!"

Escaping from Boreas' hug, Octa actually gave him a tiny smile. "Don't thank me yet, we shall likely die regardless. Look!"

A massive beam of fire came at them, and both pokémon jumped to the left to dodge it, barely managing to avoid being incinerated, but now they were no longer at the exit and were trapped against the cave wall. Now that the bright ray of flames didn't block his sight any more, Boreas saw the three pokémon that had been released from their pokéballs. The first was a ghostly, floating black chandelier with blazing blue flames that hurt Boreas' eyes to look at, though they weren't bright at all. The second was an oddly-shaped shoulderless red and grey creature with flames shooting out of its massive nose with every breath it took. The third was a gorgeous white fox with gleaming fur and nine elegant tails. Boreas found himself admiring her beauty for a few moments instead of trying to think of a way to avoid dying. _What's wrong with me? _He angrily thought, finding it hard to look away from her flowing tails.

"Hel, Vuur, Vlam!" Rood commanded his pokémon, "Fire Blast!"

–

FEEDBACK:

Q: I like Boreas a lot. I can't wait to see what happens that leads up to him evolving. I love how you began his story. Very unusual and it works well for Boreas.

A: Thanks. I did it that way because no matter which way I tried it, starting the story from the beginning just didn't seem to work. So I took a lesson from Homeros and George Lucas and started in the middle of the story instead.


	11. Incendiary Inferno of Crimson Chaos Fire

Chapter Eleven: Incendiary Inferno of Crimson Chaos Fire

The Heatmor and the Ninetales breathed in deeply, while the Chandelure's flames burned larger and larger as they prepared to incinerate Octa and Boreas. Though both tried to think of a way out, it seemed there was no escape from their impending doom. All three of their enemies spit a huge ball of flame, and just as Boreas thought his fiery, painful end was nigh, a dark shape jumped into the fiery stream. The fireballs exploded in a massive eruption of intense heat, consuming the dark figure. But when the blast of fire wore off, the figure was still standing, glowing with fiery energy.

"Flash Fire." Lucius sneered.

"Wat?" Rood exclaimed.

Black, Bianca, Cheren, and their pokémon stood in the cave opening. "You have an interesting way of "liberating" pokémon, Rood."

Boreas saw Lucius was about to unleash the fiery energy he had absorbed from the three Fire Blasts back at the enemy. "No! Don't use fire-attacks!"

Lucius stopped only to look at him with contempt. "Don't tell me what to do, pup."

"Look, if they can do that too, you'll only make them stronger!"

Lucius stopped before spitting fire, though he didn't acknowledge Boreas' correctness.

Still seething with anger, Rood said "You have defeated my grunts, I see, while you sent your pokémon ahead to cheat!"

"Cheat?"

"They smashed three of my pokéballs!"

Black chuckled. "Hey, that was a good idea! Great job, you two!"

"See?" Rood seethed, "This is the sort of thing that made me leave the Elite Four and join Team Plasma. You trainers are all cowards, who don't even respect your own rules! Just because you forced some innocent pokémon to battle for your own filthy glory makes you think you can do anything you wish! What even gives you the right to force a pokémon to battle for you in the first place?"

"Well, what about you? You claim to be liberating pokémon, and yet you use them, and in fact you were about to kill two pokémon just now!"

"Kereltje, Team Plasma only uses pokémon for real, important matters, not for petty personal goals. The liberation of pokémon is for everyone's good, especially the pokémon. If a few minor sacrifices have to be made on the way to a better world, those sacrifices are worth it. I don't expect you to understand. I only expect you to surrender. You know you can't win against me, even though you outnumber me and your cowardly cheating left me at half strength. If you dare oppose me, I will kill you and your pokémon as an example of what happens to those who oppose Team Plasma. Please don't make me do that. The screams when someone is burning to death are rather... Appalling."

Boreas felt his fur rise in fear, and wanted nothing more than to get away from the three large, fiery pokémon about to burn him to death. "No." Black said, "Your threats shan't work on us, Rood. We're going to stop you."

As much as he wanted to get as far away from the three powerful fire-types as he could, Boreas resolved to stay and fight if Black did.

Cheren nodded resolutely. "Yeah. We outnumber you three-to-one, and besides, I'd love to test my strength against a real Elite Four."

Bianca, however, was silent, and biting her fingernails. Rood smiled a disgustingly friendly smile. "En jij, meisje? Do you have a death wish too or are you smart enough to surrender? I don't want to kill you, and you don't want to die, so why don't you allow both of us not to do those things?"

Bianca's lip started trembling. "Okay." She whimpered silently.

"Clever girl."

"No!" Black shouted, "Bianca, don't give up."

"I-I'm sorry. Please don't fight him, he'll kill you!"

"Bianca, please!" Black begged her, "Don't surrender! He's just trying to frighten us because he's scared of us. If we stand together, he's outnumbered three-to-one, he can't that."

"I can't fight!" Bianca panicked, "he's an Elite Four, he'll beat us even outnumbered! Please, I don't want you to die, don't fight him!"

"Bianca, please, we need your help!"

"No we don't." Cheren interrupted snidely, "Why would we need _her_ help?"

"Cheren, shut up." Black hissed.

"It's true, isn't it? We don't need the help of someone too scared and weak to help her friends when they need her help most."

"You're not helping..." Black said between clenched teeth.

Bianca looked like she was going to say something, but then burst out in tears and returned her pokémon to their pokéballs.

"You made a wise choice." Rood said, "Are either of you two going to surrender too, or am I going to burn you alive?"

"I told you, Rood," Black said, "you can't intimidate us."

"Fine!" Rood shouted, suddenly furious, "Then you brought it over yourself! Eat flaming death! Hel, Vuur, Vlam, Flamethrower!"

The next moment the entire cave was filled with fiery crimson chaos. As huge beams of fire raged through the cave, Boreas had no time to keep an eye on anyone else's actions, too busy just staying alive in the fiery hell that the cave had suddenly become. He rolled away to dodge flames, ducked under them, and fled from them. Occasionally he would catch a quick glimpse of another pokémon doing the same. He tried to at least dodge to the enemy's direction, so that he might get to attack them at some point. The air in the cave was a wild gyre, as the flames were constantly heating different parts of it. Temperatures in the cave fluctuated insanely and rapidly between a sunny day in a desert and enough heat to ignite flesh and melt bones.

Boreas saw a quick glimpse of Cheren's Pidove performing an aerial assault on the enemy Heatmor before his head was almost burnt off by a ray of fire he barely dodged. It ignited the tip of his left ear instead, but he had no time to extinguish it as he had to push himself to the ground to dodge another Flamethrower trying to incinerate him. Lucius ran past him, ignoring the flames and blood dripping from his jaws before Boreas lost sight of him in the burning fury. He extinguished his burning ear by slapping it with his paw. He yelped in pain as a momentary wave of air that would probably have set him on fire if it lasted longer washed over him.

Boreas realised how incredibly different this battle was from the Gym battle. In the Gym Battle his opponent had only been trying to incapacitate or temporarily injure him, and had kept his fire relatively cool and under control. While here there was no question about the fact that the opponent was trying nothing less than to kill him with huge, incredibly hot flames. Boreas saw a glimpse of Black rolling over the ground, his right leg on fire, before his view was obscured by a blast of flames.

Suddenly a part of the omnipresent veil of fire parted, and Boreas and the gorgeous Ninetales saw each other. She immediately drew a big breath to execute Boreas, who did the only thing he could think of: he tossed a pawful of sand into her eyes. With the sand obscuring her vision, she managed to miss Boreas, who used the opportunity to Tackle her. The Ninetales, however, easily stopped him with a claw, and backhanded him away with a slap of another claw. In a stroke of extraordinary luck, he wasn't directly hit by any fire as he hurtled through the sea of flames. He landed next to a dried-out looking yellow-green snake.

"'Tis pleasant to see you again, my dear fellow." Octa greeted him calmly, sounding as if they had just happened to run into each other while enjoying a walk in Hyde Park, "It seems we are in a quite troublesome situation." He cringed with pain from the heat as he sidestepped a Flamethrower.

"Enough with the stiff upper lip already, are you alright?" Boreas said as he heard a horrible screech and saw Cheren's Pidove, ablaze with fierce blue flames, fly over erratically.

"Well, the heat is quite unpleas- Watch out!" he struck Boreas with his vines, hurtling him back a moment before a stream of flames passed between them. "As I said, the heat is quite unpleasant, but the flames themselves are a rather more immediate concern of mine."

Suddenly a dark shape emerged from the flames as Hel the Chandelure approached, firing bursts of blue flames at them. Octa and Boreas tried to run away, but the ghostly creature created a ring of horrid blue fire around them. Boreas looked up in despair at the Chandelure powering up for an executing Flamethrower, but then he saw something that gave him an idea. "Octa! Hit the stalactites!"

The Chandelure was about to incinerate both of them when Octa stretched his vines around it and hit a stalactite above. The stalactite broke off and came crashing down onto the fire-type, taking it down to the ground. Though it seemed injured, it started to move again when Octa made two more stalactites crash into it. One of the stalactites pierced the ghostly body with its tip, and big pools of a transparent fluid leaked out of the creature and immediately caught fire before Rood returned it to its pokéball.

"There's two more to go!" Cheren's Tepig, running past, called. Suddenly a torrent of fire forced Octa and Boreas to run away in opposite directions. Boreas passed a dark wounded shape on the ground and realised it was Lucius. He was unconscious and his legs looked broken, but seemed to be alive. Boreas tried to make his way to the remaining enemies to see if they could be dispatched in the same manner as the Chandelure when suddenly a beam of fire shot from the left. Boreas tried to dodge it by jumping out of the way, but it was too late.

An abhorrent gust of infernal, flames hit Boreas, much, much warmer than anything he had ever imagined possible. Every single cell in his body screamed in torturous agony, as did Boreas himself. His entire body was in excruciating anguish as the flames enveloped him. Though he had been in the Flamethrower only momentarily, the torture continued as he was on fire. He tried to roll over the ground to extinguish the agonising flames consuming his flesh, but they burned so hard that even if he did manage to extinguish something, it would catch alight almost immediately from a neighbouring body part. With the last bit of his thoughts not concerning itself with writhing in torturous agony, he realised his only hope was to find the underground river, but he couldn't even look out of his eyes to find it, as the fur around them was burning and blinded him with its intense light.

Then there was suddenly relief from the burning heat. He wondered if it was death, and if it was he wouldn't even mind as long as it stopped the pain, but then realised that it was, in fact, water being shot at him, dousing his burning body. He gasped with joy as the pain all over his body lessened to approximately the pain one would feel if his skin had been torn off and cautiously opened his eyes again. It was very hard to see through the dried-out eyes, but he saw a blue, white, and rather stupid-looking shape.

"Oshy!" he gasped, "Thank you so much! Spit water at the enemy now!"

"Already tried that." Oshy said softly, "They just counter it with Flamethrowers, which are so hot they evaporate my water before it reaches them." Then he ran off as a long, pained yell sounded.

Gritting his teeth in pain, Boreas managed to get on his feet and dragged himself to the enemy. He saw Munny float over and be blasted away in mid-air by a beam of fire. He dragged himself to the underground river, and unceremoniously fell into it. The water soothed his burns and stopped his fur from smouldering. Rehydrating his dry eyes in the water, he looked at the part of the cave he could see. Though it seemed there were no stalactite above the remaining enemies, Boreas managed to think of a plan. But he would at least need Octa and Oshy's help for it.

He clambered onto the shore and immediately had to duck under a Flamethrower. He found Octa, looking even more dehydrated and with a burnt tail, in the crimson chaos and told him his part of the plan. He found Oshy and as the Oshawott blasted the enemy with water to distract them, Boreas managed to find Cheren's Purrloin, the only other pokémon still in fighting condition, and together they performed their part of the plan: throwing sand into the eyes of the enemies. The sand made it harder for them to properly counter Oshy's Water Guns, though even when they were hit, it seemed to have little effect. But Boreas caught a glimpse of rising water, realising Octa's part of the plan had worked: He had collapsed the stalactites above the river, thus blocking the water's exit. The cave was rapidly flooding, but Vuur and Vlam were too busy trying to counter Oshy's Water Guns and were nearly blinded by all the sand in their eyes. The water washed over their feet, and both fire-types yelped, but when they tried to step out of it, they found more water in all directions.

"Wat nu weer?" Rood yelled, "Vuur, Vlam, Inferno!"

They stopped trying to hit specific targets with their Flamethrowers, and instead resorted to emitting huge waves of intense fire, emerging to all directions. Though there were holes in the waves of flame that were not that hard to get through, it was hard to do this wave after wave. As they planned, the four remaining pokémon slowly manoeuvred around the two mighty fire-types, so that they stood between them and the rising river.

"Get to dry land!" Rood commanded his pokémon as the water rose rapidly. Blinded by the sand in their eyes, the two assumed this to be the direction their enemies were standing in, and they blindly charged them, firing Flamethrowers in their direction as they did so. Moments after running past them, the two fell into the deep water, releasing massive amounts of steam and smoke.

"Nee!" Rood shouted as he threw two pokéballs. Then he spoke into his Xtranceiver: "Plasma, initiate Operation G.T.F.O.!"

"Surrender, Rood." Cheren said, walking through the thick smoke that by now filled the cave. "You lost."

"I don't think so." Rood said as he threw a smoke bomb and even thicker smoke filled the cave. "You may win today, but it was only through luck and cheating. Don't meddle with Plasma again, as you won't be so lucky next time."

–

After the thick black smoke finally cleared, Rood, nor any other Plasma member, was to be found. It seemed they had been extremely lucky, as none of the pokémon had died during the battle. Cheren's Pidove had been closest, but she had turned out to have crashed into the river and was floating around on her back, badly burnt but still alive. Now that the excitement of battle was over, Boreas had a chance to examine himself. His fur was badly burnt, completely blackened and dead in some places, while in others it just looked poor and thin. The skin underneath had been somewhat protected from the fire by his fur, and though burnt all over, it only looked very bad in some spots. He did notice an awful smell of burning meat, though, and with horror realised it was his own smell.

As Bianca found her injured pokémon, Black, walking with a slight limp on his burnt leg, thanked her for joining the battle after all, while Cheren didn't speak a word to her and barely acknowledged her existence. Octa's tail had been hit with a direct flame, but the rest of his injuries amounted to dehydration from the heat. Boreas felt he had to talk to him.

"I'm sorry, Octa." he said.

"Huh?"

"You were right, I shouldn't have gotten so angry and wasted everyone's time. And I shouldn't have insulted you."

"No, my dear fellow, I should be the one to apologise. I might have been somewhat more considerate of your feelings, after all you've been through quite the experience and 'tis unfair of me to expect you to be entirely rational about it. And I really shouldn't have insulted your family and implied you were not worthy to interact with me."

And with a quick hug, they forgave each other. Octa sniffed. "Oh my, you really don't smell or look too good, my dear fellow."

"I don't feel too good either." Boreas agreed. "Do you think I'll get better? I really wish I won't have to live feeling all this pain and looking like this."

"Don't worry, humans are very good at treating injuries. With their medicine, I'm sure you shall make a full recovery."


	12. Repose

Chapter Twelve: Repose

_Present_

"Whew," Aqua whistled, "that sounds like quite the battle."

The fact that Aqua sounded impressed gave Boreas immense satisfaction. "It was." he said, "I'm lucky to have survived it all, really."

"You're lucky to be clever enough to think of ways to defeat those pokémon. If you hadn't been there, none of them would've been defeated. Not only that, but there would be three more of them."

Boreas gleamed with pride after her praise, but tried to be at least a bit modest. "I'm sure _someone_ would have thought of something to do. Octa can be very smart when he's not too busy wasting his intelligence on showing off how intelligent he is, y'know."

"Perhaps, and they might've dealt with one or two enemies that way. But all six of them? Not much chance." She moved a bit closer to Boreas, so that their flanks and thighs were touching. "If you were burned, it must've left some scars you could show me..."

"Nah, the humans are really very good at healing wounds. The fire didn't leave any scars, and if it had they would have disappeared when I evolved." Then, realising what he'd said, he thought: _Why'd I say that? She was so obviously flirting, and I said no?_

Seeming slightly disappointed, Aqua said: "Okay. I guess it's for the better that you don't have any scars, innit?"

"Yeah, of course." _Damn humans and your medicine, couldn't you have left me _one_ scar?_

"Now that you've told me this, I understand your hate for Team Plasma much better."

Boreas was glad that she was acknowledging his correctness. "I knew you'd come around after I told you more about them."

"No, no, you misunderstand me. I meant that I understand why you dislike them so much now: I wouldn't like people who set me on fire and tried to kill me either. That doesn't mean they're wrong, though. I still agree with them. Humans and pokémon don't belong together."

Boreas couldn't believe it. "What do you mean you agree with them? They stole pokémon from the Daycare, they set me on fire and nearly killed me, they tried to manipulate people's dreams to make them release their pokémon, and they really hurt that Munna when forcing it to make Dream Mist!"

"Okay, first of all, even if they were horrible people, that doesn't mean they're wrong. As for the things you named, I don't see why the stealing of pokémon from the Daycare was such a bad thing, as they were liberating those pokémon. While trying to kill you and the others was rather cruel, you have to remember that you were attacking their local headquarters and they were defending. And you angered him. While I certainly don't think lethal violence was an appropriate response, he is of course only a human. I don't see what's so bad about influencing people's dreams either: if that makes them see why they have to liberate their pokémon, what's so bad about it? I agree that hurting that Munna in the process was bad, but that was just the action of individuals inside Team Plasma, not the organisation."

"I'll tell you why it was wrong to..." he suddenly felt the soft touch of Aqua's tail wrapping around his. He blushed and his tail felt as if it was on fire again, except without the pain this time. "...To kidnap... um... To steal pokémon's people from the... uh... Sorry, I've completely forgotten where I was, let me start again: it was wrong to- Okay, that is very pleasant, but also extremely distracting."

"What is?" Aqua said with a look of purest innocence.

"Nothing." Boreas decided to play along and tried to free his tail from her hold, which wasn't easy as her tail was both longer and stronger than his. "To steal those pokémon was bad because those pokémon were friends with their trainers, and now they'll likely never see their trainers again." With great effort, Boreas managed to produce a coherent sentence while at the same time managing to stifle his laughter and trying to release his tail from Aqua's grasp.

"If those pokémon really wanted to stay with their" she giggled softly as Boreas managed wriggle his tail out of her hold and started hunting for her tail now, "with their trainers, they can just go back to them once they're free in the wild."

"Not if they couldn't find them." Boreas managed to graze her tail, but she pulled it away too rapidly to catch it, "Unova is a big place, who knows were their trainers are. Or they could be too young to find their trainers again. Or maybe they'll die in the wild before reaching their trainer."

"Maybe, but think of those who find they don't want to go back. They can finally enjoy freedom."

"But if they wanted freedom," he felt her fur brush against his tail for one tantalising moment as he almost managed to catch her tail, "they could just leave their trainers. It's not as if any trainer takes special measures to ensure their pokémon don't run away. They don't need to, because pokémon don't _want_ to leave their trainers."

"I think that's just because most pokémon just don't know any better."

"But what-" Boreas let out a frustrated sigh as Aqua's tail evaded his once again. "You're too fast, I can't do this."

Aqua stopped evading him. She was about to say something, but Boreas immediately grasped her tail the moment she wasn't expecting it. Aqua laughed, "Not bad. I see you weren't boasting when you told about tricking your opponents."

Boreas caressed her tail softly. "No. There's no need to boast when the truth speaks for itself."

Aqua returned his grin and caressed his tail back, almost massaging it. A warm, happy feeling spread through Boreas' entire body. He really became aware how much he liked Aqua, and had a sudden urge to embrace her and to stroke her pointy, finned ears, but figured that might be moving a bit too fast. "Well played." Aqua said smilingly.

Boreas had half a mind of just enjoying her company and chatting about anything, but the fact that she still agreed with Team Plasma bothered him. "Hey, about Team Plasma messing with people's dreams: don't you think that's a rather underhanded, manipulative thing to do? I mean, if they want to convince those people they can just present their arguments and convince them instead of manipulating their dreams."

"Some people just close their minds" Aqua responded, "to other opinions, convinced that they are right. With those people, manipulating their dreams might be the only way to convince them to release their pokémon."

"No." Boreas said, "I don't agree. It still a dirty, underhanded tactic."

"Don't you think it's a tiny bit hypocritical for you to be complaining about people using underhanded tactics?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that using tamato soup and stalactites as weapons and breaking pokéballs are underhanded tactics too. And I haven't even mentioned the worst part yet: pretending to surrender only to grab my tail the moment I least expected it."

Boreas laughed. "Okay, so maybe I'm not the best person to be berating them for that, but I've never used trickery to manipulate someone into doing things against their will. And besides, they've done so much worse than manipulating dreams."

"They have?" Aqua asked, "why don't you tell me more then? I'm still willing to be convinced, and you're a good narrator."

"Okay. The next time I met Plasma was in Nacrene City on an awfully hot day in June. W I was heavily shedding fur in the heat, and thus very itchy, warm, and irritable, while Octa, Lucius, and Toxica really enjoyed the Sun and-"

"Hang on." Aqua interrupted, "Who's Toxica?"

"Oh, I forgot to tell you about Toxica." Boreas still found it hard to concentrate with Aqua's tail and his intertwined closely, "Toxica is an Oddish we met while we were at the Daycare. We stayed there for more than a month, you see. First it was to heal our many injuries and rest, but a very good nurse named Entropy worked at the Daycare, so we were pretty much completely healed in just a few days. She even managed to make my fur look somewhat decent again. After that, we stayed for a long time to train, help around at the Daycare, and just to have fun. There was a lot of fun to be had there, I even made friends with some other Eevees.

But at some point, I became very restless. Even though I was having fun at the Daycare, I wanted to move on. It almost felt as if the hills were calling to me to come see what was on the other side of them. So at one point I gave in. I left the Daycare and climbed one of the hills, to see what was on the other side. It turned out there were more hills, so I climbed one of them too before returning to the Daycare two days later."

"Your friends must've been worried about you if you were gone for so long."

"They were. Black was furious and very happy to see me again by the time I came back. But the next day I left again to climb another hill. And I basically kept doing that until we left, always on my own except for this one time I convinced Octa to join me..."

–

_Past_

"...But when the actors got to the part where they re-enacted the murder, the king got up and left the room, clearly indicating his father's ghost had been speaking the truth and had indeed been murdered by his own brother, the new king!" Octa narrated.

"I see." Boreas said, "So what happened next?"

"Well, this is where it gets quite fascinating: his mother summons him, requesting an explanation for the odd behaviour he exhibited earlier, and on his way there he passes the king, who has his back turned and isn't expecting a thing."

Boreas was somewhat disappointed by this rather anticlimactic conclusion. "Oh. So I take it he kills him?"

"No, my dear fellow, that's the really quite fascinating part, he doesn't. You see, as much as he hates his uncle now that he knows the truth, he can't bring himself to commit cold-blooded murder."

"But why?" Boreas asked, "The man was an evil monster, he murdered his own brother!"

"Oh yes, he most certainly was. But taking a life in cold blood is not an easy thing to do, you see. And it's a good thing that it is, for it helps us differentiate the heroes from the villains. And- Oh, lisping Lugia, it's starting to rain."

Boreas noted that big raindrops were starting to pour down from the sky. "So it is. It'll probably just be a quick shower. What happened next?"

"What happened next is us finding shelter. Come on." Octa hurried for the nearest copse of trees and sheltered under their leaves.

"I would think a grass-type like you would enjoy the rain more." Boreas said as he joined Octa..

"There is a distinctive difference between a grass-type and a plant, I do hope you know that."

"But what- Ack!" Boreas's feet suddenly hit something as he walked through the grass, he heard a feminine voice yelp, and he tripped and fell into a puddle. An Oddish popped up out of the ground.

"Hey! What'd you do that for?" She yelled.

"What'd _I_ do that for?" Boreas shouted back after shaking the water out of his fur, "How was I supposed to-"

Octa interrupted him. "I apologise for my companion's behaviour, madam. 'Twas rude of him to awaken you from your sleep like that, but I assure you he did not do it on purpose."

"What are-" Boreas started, but was interrupted.

The Oddish's anger seemed to disappear quickly. "Oh, it's fine then, I guess. My name's Toxica."

Octa bowed. "'Tis a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Lady Toxica. My name is Octavianus."

"Yeah, but he likes just 'Octa' better, 'cause Octavianus is too sesquicentennial." Boreas intermitted.

"Be quiet." Octa said patronisingly, "I do actually prefer Octavianus, but 'tis just a too _sesquipedalian_ name to use in everyday conversation."

"It sounds pretty cool, though." Toxica smiled.

"Why, thank you." Octa said with a little bow, "The name has been in my family for twenty-seven generations. I do rather like Toxica too."

"Thanks. I picked it myself."

"Yourself?"

"Yeah, we Oddishes aren't much for family life. We just sow our eggs in the ground like seeds and are done with it. I wouldn't know whom my parents are, and presumably they wouldn't know they have a daughter either. But you mentioned twenty-seven generations? That's quite a long time."

"As a matter of fact, I know my entire glorious family tree for the past thirty-five generations. The name Octavianus entered my family twenty-seven generations ago, when my ancestor Octavianus the First, together with his trainer, Do-"

Boreas interrupted him, recognising what was going to happen and wanting to prevent it. "It was nice meeting you, Toxica, but we've got to go now that it's stopped raining. These hills won't explore themselves, you see."

"Now hold on, my dear fellow," Octa halted him, "I am telling a story to the lady."

Boreas was starting to be very annoyed by both Octa and Toxica. "You were telling _me_ a story, why don't you continue it while we walk on? And then you can also tell me about your namesake ancestor."

"I would prefer to tell it to the lady. Besides, we awoke her, and I doubt she shall still be able to catch sleep today. It would seem to be our duty to entertain her until the evening."

"Yeah," Toxica said gladly, "That sounds good. Tell me about your ancestor."

"Until the evening?" Boreas said, "But that's way too long! I want to go on now!"

"Why don't I walk with you for a while, then?" Toxica suggested.

"An excellent idea!" Octa said.

Boreas sighed. He didn't like the fact that Toxica would be joining them, and hoped that she would leave soon so that Octa would continue his story.


	13. Deceit in Nacrene City

Chapter Thirteen: Deceit in Nacrene City

Boreas was warm, itchy, and annoyed. All three of those conditions had the same cause: summer had arrived with its asphyxiating heat. For day on end the Sun was all alone in the sky, not a single cloud in view, and it seemed to have decided to use all that space it had for itself to perform some incredible acrobatics: very early each morning it would rise in the north-east, climb higher and higher, seemingly attempting to reach the zenith, and only barely failing. Then it would just hang around near the zenith for several hours, shining almost straight down on the world, before finally and very slowly sinking to the north-west, where it would set very late in the evening. About an hour after the last light in the sky had disappeared, it reappeared again as the Sun was preparing to do the whole trick over again.

Boreas' fur seemed to have decided to abandon ship after a few days of the stifling heat, as he was heavily shedding, making him very, very itchy, and every time he scratched large masses of hair would loosen. Yet there always seemed to be enough left to make him feel miserably warm, and this made Boreas very annoyed. He only had conscious memories of two seasons (he had been born in winter, of course, but by the time he was old enough to go outside it was well into spring), but he had a growing suspicion that this would be his least favourite of all four. What made him even more annoyed was the frustratingly chirpy behaviour of Octa and Toxica, their chloroplasts bringing them enormous amounts of energy every day. Lucius seemed to be enjoying the stifling heat too, as Boreas could've sworn he had come close to cracking a smile at several points.

And now it seemed they were about to reach Nacrene City, where he would probably be even warmer, itchier, and more annoyed. He didn't know if he would be able to stand another boring grey city filled with boring grey humans. But as they approached, Boreas realised this city was rather unlike Striaton. He heard faint sounds of music, talking, and laughter. And the city seemed to be made of low buildings entirely, missing the tall grey flats that Striaton was filled with.

As they entered the city, an incredible mix of colours assaulted their eyes: every house was painted in bizarre colours, from red to blue, and everyone was wearing differently coloured clothes. Many people had even dyes their hair in all kinds of bizarre colours. Pokémon walked freely among the humans and it seemed there was some kind of market going on, as many humans were performing music in the streets, or dancing, or selling drawings and paintings. Some were painting or drawing, or even sculpturing on the spot, and everyone seemed to be thoroughly enjoying themselves. The contrast with Striaton couldn't possible have been greater. Though some of the musicians and other artists were pretty bad, and the insane mix of colours looked quite overdone and ugly, Boreas liked Nacrene infinitely much more than Striaton.

Black and his pokémon were just sort of staring at the jolly chaos around them, bedazzled by the endless display of colour, when a blue-haired human in neat black and red clothing jovially slapped Black on the shoulder.

"Hey there, new in town?" he asked. He had a truly bizarre hairstyle, with two large spikes pointing up above each ear, and a long yellow scarf that almost reached the ground.

"Uh..." Black said somewhat startled, "Yeah, I am."

"Welcome! My name's Sly, and you look like you want to know more about Nacrene."

"Uh..."

"Well, you have to know that Nacrene is a city full of artists. Everyone here practises some form of art, either professionally or as a hobby. And on a sunny day like this, we all go outside to show off our art and earn a bit of money with it. Cool, huh?"

Black nodded, somewhat freaked out. "Uh... Yeah. It's pretty cool. What kind of art do you practise?"

Sly laughed a very odd little "hehehehehe"-laugh. "Oh, a bit of this and a bit of that. Many people wouldn't consider half of it a real art. Anyway, are you looking for the pokécenter?"

Black nodded, and Sly gave him directions and made his exit.

"Weird guy." Toxica said.

"Yeah." Boreas said, "I wonder what he's up to."

"I highly doubt he's "up" to something, my dear fellow." Octa said, "The gentleman quite obviously enjoyed a proper upbringing that only one with noble ancestry such as myself would have. Didn't you notice the proper bearing and the walk?"

Boreas and Toxica shrugged.

"Quite, I remember now that neither of you would have had much chance to observe those of good ancestry, myself excepted. But let me assure you: that gentleman's upbringing and ancestry was as proper as mine."

Toxica and Boreas just shrugged again and followed Black to the pokécenter. Just as they were passing a band of trumpeters, a little, cloaked old lady bumped into Black and nearly fell over. Black apologised and helped her to her feet, and then they continued.

They arrived at the pokécenter and entered. A crimson-haired nurse stood behind the counter.

"Hi," Black said, "My name is Black, and I've just arrived in this city to challenge the Gym. Do you have any rooms free?"

"Sure." the nurse said, "My name's Torment. Can I see your trainer's card?"

"Sure," Black said, reaching into his pocket. "Here it... Hmm, must have put it in my backpack..." He rummaged through his backpack, more and more frantic, "What the... It's gone! Everything is gone! My trainer card, my trio badge, my money! I've been robbed!"

"I bet it was that Sly." Boreas growled.

"Total codswallop." Octa protested, "It must have been that little old lady that bumped into him. A quintessentially proper gentleman like sly would never steal something."

"Oh dear," Nurse Torment said, "We'd better get the police then."

"'Afternoon, all." a bearded policeman who had just entered the pokécenter greeted them, "I'm officer Grim of the Nacrene City Police Department. What's all this then?"

"Officer!" Black gratefully greeted the policeman, "I've been pickpocketed by someone. They stole my trainer's card, my money, and my badge."

"Righto. Please describe the incident and the stolen items to me and give me your ID number."

After the policeman had taken Black's police statement and left, he approached the nurse. "Nurse, I know I don't have any papers or money, but may I please sleep in the pokécenter anyway? I can sleep on the couch here in the waiting room if you don't want to give me a room."

"Well... It's against the rules, y'know."

"Yeah, I know." Black said with a sinking feeling.

"So go right ahead."

"Thanks. You're an angel."

–

The next day, Black and his pokémon dropped by the police station to see if there was any news of his stolen stuff.

"I'm sorry, but there's no officer named Grim in the city." the policewoman Black was talking to said.

"But there is. He took my police statement yesterday, a big heavy man in a black beard, you must know him."

"No such officer works in Nacrene, sir, but we have been getting reports of someone impersonating a policeman. Would you like to make a police statement?"

–

That afternoon, Black and his pokémon wandered the town grumpily. Without money they couldn't even buy ice cream to cool them down on the blazing hot day, and without a trainer's card they couldn't challenge the Gym either. At one point, someone quickly sketched something on a piece of paper as Black passed her. She showed it to his pokémon while he wasn't looking, and they saw it was a caricature of him, looking incredibly grumpy. With a shushing gesture, she put it in his pocket without him realising anything, to his pokémon's great amusement, and left.

As they walked the city's outskirts, they suddenly saw a familiar face.

"Look, it's N!" Boreas said.

Suddenly Sly appeared from the crowd, jovially slapped N's shoulder, and started talking to him. From the angle they looked on this time, it was quite obvious that he was in fact pickpocketing something from N's backpack.

"Hey, Sly!" Black shouted as he ran at the pickpocket, "Give back what you stole from N and me!"

"Hmm?" N looked up.

"Uh oh." Sly ran off. Black and his pokémon pursued him through the crowd. It seemed they were going to lose him, but then a Pidove flew over and landed in his two-spiked hair. Sly struggled to get it out of his hair, and in doing so he lost enough speed that Black could overtake and tackle him to the ground.

Surprisingly, Sly laughed. "Congrats, it's rare that someone manages to not only find me, but also catch me. Hang on, I'll give you your stuff back."

"You know I'm going to hand you over to the police anyway, right?" Black asked.

Sly grinned. "Of course. But I had some fun, that's what I'm doing it for in the first place."

"You pickpocket people for fun?"

"Yeah. You should try it sometime, it's hilarious. Did you realise I pickpocketed you thrice yesterday and a fourth time just now?"

"What?"

"Yeah. When I introduced you to town I stole your money and your badge from your backpack, when I bumped into you, disguised as a little old lady, I stole your trainer's card from your pocket, and I stole your watch when I was disguised as Officer Grim. Ah, I can see from your reaction you hadn't even noticed it was gone. Finally I stole a caricature of you from your pocket just now. My, you're looking grumpy on it."

Black took back each of the items as Sly gave them back. "So you do this for fun?" he said in disgust, "Don't you realise how much annoyance and problems you cause to the people you rob?"

Sly shrugged. "Not my problem. I'm just having fun practising my art. Besides, I don't always pickpocket. Yesterday evening I was bored with it, so I sold someone a map of a treasure buried in the Giant Chasm."

"But you might even kill someone with that! The Giant Chasm is incredibly dangerous!"

"Not my problem. I'm an artist, and I'm just practising my art. I told you most people wouldn't consider my art art."

"That's because it isn't!"

"See, I told you."

"Look, how is stealing an art?"

"Not just stealing. I consider cheating and lying part of it too. And I'm not going to explain how they are an art, it's unlikely that I'll convince you."

"Hmpf, you're just a sad kleptomaniac who tries to justify his actions."

"I don't try to justify my actions, I already told you I don't care. And I'm not a kleptomaniac, but an artist."

"Well, I'll just let the police sort you out, Sly, if that's really your name, which I doubt." He pulled Sly to his feet, "And give back my watch and trainer's card, I noticed you steal them this time."

Sly gave them back. "Not bad. And now- oh?" He squinted, surprised by something behind Black, and when Black instinctively looked for a moment, he immediately ran off, throwing a pokéball. A ferocious Krookodile appeared, and immediately made a massive tremor, knocking everyone nearby off their feet and shattering houses' windows. Then Sly got it back into its pokéball as he ran off. Black followed him the moment he got back to his feet, but Sly had disappeared around a corner. They searched for him, but couldn't find him.

"Such a noble, proper gentleman." Boreas teased Octa.

Octa blushed slightly. "Well, quite. It seems I was mistaken there. It appears 'twas just a part of his act."

"Boreas, Octa!" N greeted them as he caught up, "How are you?"

"Splendid." Octa said.

"Fine." Boreas lied.

"Hello to you too." Black said annoyed.

Ignoring Black, N talked to his pokémon: "I see you have new friends."

"Ah yes, allow me to introduce you," Octa said, "N, these are Lucius and Toxica."

"H-hi." Toxica shyly waved using her leaves, "Can you really talk to pokémon?"

"No," Lucius sneered, "he just happens to respond exactly to what we're saying, idiot."

"Hey!" Octa berated him, "Now that is no way to treat a lady. Nor, in fact, is it any way a civilised man would treat a gentleman. To treat another-"

Lucius rolled his eyes. "Just shut up, you dandy."

"Dandy?" Octa seethed, "How dare you, sir! I shan't shut up. You, sir, are a barbarian!"

"Octa," Boreas said, putting a calming paw on his shoulder, "Calm down."

"Yeah," Lucius sneered, "Listen to your boyfriend, Octa. Calm down." he imitated Boreas' tone.

"He is not my boyfriend." Octa spoke icily, "We are friends, a concept you are likely unable to comprehend."

"Whatever." Lucius said, "Keep telling yerselves that. I'm gonna go stand over there now."

"What's _his_ problem?" Toxica wondered.

Boreas shrugged.

"A general lack of manners, intelligence, and civilisation, 'twould seem." Octa seethed.

N was about to say something, when Black interrupted. "So, N, what do you want?"

N seemed genuinely puzzled by the question. "What do I want?" he thought about it, "I... want to see things no one can see. The truths of pokémon inside pokéballs. The ideals of how trainers should be. And a future where Pokémon have become perfect... Do you feel the same?"

Black, in his turn, was now puzzled. "What? Uh... I guess, yeah."

"Is that so? I think my friends and I should test you to see if you can see this future, too. Claudia?"

The Pidove that had stopped Sly from fleeing earlier came flying down from a rooftop and landed before N.

"A battle, eh?" Black said, "Lucius, fight that Pidove! Bite!"

Lucius jumped at the Pidove, but she was faster than him and repelled him by flapping her wings and making a Gust. After he was knocked about by the Gust, Lucius once again jumped Claudia, who couldn't stop him this time. Lucius bit her, drawing blood and leaving nasty bitemarks.

"Sorry, but I'm out of here!" Claudia screeched as she flew off panicky.

"That was easy." Lucius sounded surprised.

N chuckled. "It seems my new friend wasn't quite as ready for battle as she had me believe. But my other friend will make up for that. Go, Baltoy!"

A weird little balancing top came around the corner. "Ha, is that all?" Lucius boasted as he bit the Baltoy. The Baltoy didn't even seem to feel the nasty bite it received, and reciprocated by rapidly slashing Lucius multiple times with its arms, spinning around. Lucius bit it again, and once again the Baltoy completely ignored the Bite and reciprocated by multiple rapid scratches. Lucius was the one bleeding now.

Boreas though this all very weird. "Octa, shouldn't Lucius' Bites be very powerful against a Baltoy?"

Octa nodded. "If the simpleton is doing them properly, the dark energy such a bite should be infused with should overwhelm a telepathic mind. Ergo, he's not doing them properly. A pity, 'tis _such_ a shame to see him hurt because of his own incompetence."

"I told you," Lucius gnarled as he was hit by the enemy again, "shut up!"

Boreas couldn't help think that the Baltoy was moving in rather strange ways for what was essentially a living top. It moved sideways, and dodged in ways that seemed physically impossible for it. Its flat arms were also leaving distinct claw marks on Lucius' skin. Suddenly a story his father had once told him sprang to Boreas' mind. "Lucius! Try using fire!"

"Shut. Up. Pup! That's stupid!" Lucius gnarled.

"Just use a fire-attack, if I'm right it'll work much better!"

"Well, you are wrong, dipshit. Because that is a ground and psychic type, so fire will do little, while my bites work extra good. So stop bothering me with your stupid suggestions."

"It's not a Baltoy, it's a Zorua! So just try using fire!"

"Are you blind as well as stupid? It's a Baltoy, look at it. And now shut your trap!"

"Idiot." Boreas and Lucius said at the same moment. Half a minute later, Lucius was defeated.

"Octa, it's your turn!"

Octa switched in. "Hello, Diego, long time no see." he said as he launched a Leaf Tornado at the enemy.

The Baltoy was so surprised by Octa's words that he was caught up right in the middle of the Leaf Tornado. The storm of leaves completely enveloped him. When the Leaf Tornado dissipated, a large, black shape with many eyes stood in its centre.

"Holy buckets!" Black cursed, "It evolved!"

"No, it didn't." Octa calmly spoke, "He's just trying to intimidate me. But his illusions shan't work any more." He put extra force behind the words by accentuating them with a Leaf Tornado, which the Claydol dodged with a jump a real Claydol could never have performed.

"Diego, drop the disguise," N said, "they've seen through it."

The Claydol disappeared into thin air, and in its centre was a Zorua with several cuts made by viciously sharp leaves. Immediately after dropping the disguise, he jumped at Octa and scratched him several times with his claws. Octa slapped Diego with his vines, knocking him off, and Diego tried to Bite Octa. Octa quickly dodged, and then suddenly a brilliant light enveloped him.

Diego jumped back startled, and the light made it hard for Boreas to see what was happening to his friend. He was scared, and hoped nothing was wrong. Squinting, he managed to see Octa's silhouette in the radiant light. It was rapidly changing, growing longer and sleeker, and leaves sprouted from his back in the process. Less than ten seconds after it had started, the light disappeared.

"Splendid." Octa the Sevine remarked. Boreas noted his voice was lower and more melodious than it had been before. He saw Diego had retreated to N's shoulder. "Diego, would you be so good as to come down from there so I can celebrate my evolution by winning this battle?"

"Not today." Diego surrendered, "I don't think I can beat you now."

"You win." N said to Black.

"Wow, you evolved!" Black congratulated Octa.

"As you can see, my friends aren't strong enough to save all Pokémon." N said, "Maybe I can't solve the equation that will change the world. So, I need power... Power enough to make anyone agree with me. Then, we will be friends." he walked off.

Boreas joined Octa, surprised at how much larger he had become. "Octa, you look awesome!"

"Thank you, my dear fellow."

"Y-yeah." Toxica whispered. Boreas noticed she was blushing a deep purple and seemed to be staring at the ground. "Really, really awesome."


	14. An Archaeologist With Backbone

Chapter Fourteen: An Archæologist With Backbone

The Nacrene Gym was a big stately white building with classicist architecture and sculptures of ancient pokémon outside. Before entering, Black paused for a moment to talk to his pokémon.

"The Gym Leader here uses the normal-type. That means none of you will be at either a type advantage or a disadvantage. So I'll simply use the most powerful among you. Good luck."

They entered a magnificent hall with all kinds of archæological and palæontological exhibits, such as ancient skeletons, fossils, sculptures, and reliefs. The hall was dominated by a beautifully reconstructed skeleton of a draconian pokémon.

"Do you want to visit the museum, sir?" someone standing next to the door asked, startling Black. "A ticket costs 10 pokémoney."

"And... What about the Gym?" Black asked. "Is it here?"

"Oh, the Gym? It's-"

"Thank you, Mr. Picklecopter, I will take it from here." a scientist said, "my name is Hawes, and I'll take you to the Gym. It's just in the back of the museum, you see. Do you mind if I give you a small tour before I show you the Gym?"

"No, that's okay."

"Then walk this way."

Black followed Hawes. The first exhibit they stopped at was the large dragon skeleton. "This fascinating skeleton was once a Dragonite. It lived about 5000 years ago, and when it was alive it must have been one of the most powerful pokémon in all of Unova. Wild Dragonites are incredibly rare and have territories the size of a small continent, you see. Even in modern times, a human capturing them in the wild is completely unheard of. Very, very rarely, a powerful trainer manages to catch a Dratini and train it all the way to a Dragonite, but such a process takes an incredible amount of time and energy. In the era when this Dragonite lived, humans worshipped them and would often make sacrifices to them. The bones of this Dragonite showed severe damage when they were dug up, so it is thought that it perished in an accident."

He led them on to a relief of an insectoid pokémon. "This is a relief of a Kabutops, a pokémon that used to be extinct before a technology to revive them from fossils was perfected."

He continued the tour, showing many interesting exhibits, and finally he showed a bright white stone. "We're not quite sure what this is. It seems to be just an ordinary white stone, but it's impossible to make any marks on it. My wife is still researching what it might be. My wife is the director of this museum and the Gym Leader, see, a very strong and kind trainer named Lenora. And her Gym is just through that door there. Good luck, you'll need it."

"Thanks."

Behind the door was another large room, full of books stacked in large bookcases. There must have been thousands of books in the library, and Boreas just stared at it in bedazzlement. Octa had taught him how to read at the Daycare, but there had been only a few dozen books there. He had never imagined this many books existing in the whole world, let alone together in a single place. Between the towering bookcases were paths. Most of the paths were thin, but one of them, the central one where they were currently, was several metres wide and divided the library in two. In the middle of the wide path, a woman with dark skin and blue hair curled up into a large cloud-like shape was reading a book on a table. She looked up when she heard them enter.

"Are you the Gym Leader?" Black asked.

"Yes." She said, standing up, "I am Lenora, director of the museum and Gym Leader. Are you a challenger?"

"Yes. My name is Black, and I want to challenge you!"

Lenora swung her apron over her shoulder to reveal a belt of pokéballs. "Well then, Black, I'm going to research how you battle with the pokémon you have lovingly raised! Shall we use two pokémon each?"

Black nodded.

Hawes spoke up. "The challenger and Gym Leader Lenora will each use two pokémon. They are not allowed to use items, and a pokémon that has been switched out counts as having been defeated. Begin the battle!"

"Schliemann," Lenora threw a pokéball, "Test this challenger's worth!"

A Herdier appeared from the pokéball. "Lucius, begin the battle with a Howl!"

As Lucius howled, charging into combat, Boreas felt like a small friendly town that was expecting to get a new road built through it, greatly boosting its economy, when the government suddenly announces its going to build the road through the neighbouring city that keeps dumping their toxic waste into the town's fields instead. "Lucius? But I thought I..."

"Well," Octa said as Lucius and Schliemann started their battle, "he did say he would use the most powerful pokémon. I would assume that to mean myself and Lucius."

"But I'm better than Lucius!"

"The time you tried to kill me says otherwise, pup!" Lucius sneered, dodging the Herdier's attack.

"But I was enraged out of my mind and not thinking properly then. I could beat you if I was calm and using my brains."

Lucius scoffed. "Of coooourse you could, pup. You're becoming as cocky as your bo- ARP!" Schliemann hit him with a grievously powerful Take Down which knocked him away in a nearly straight line until he hit the bookcase a few metres back with a massive thud. He managed to get back on his feet, badly bruised, one leg dragging behind him, and very angry. "STOP DISTRACTING ME, PUP!"

Schliemann charged Lucius to finish the battle with another Take Down, but Lucius managed to sidestep just in time and the Herdier ran into the bookcase instead, nearly making it fall over with his ferocious strength. Lucius immediately used the opportunity to dig his teeth into his enemy, and followed up by singeing him with an Ember. But Schliemann was faster than Lucius expected, and managed to hit him with another Take Down, knocking him to the ground. Lucius growled and cursed in pain, but couldn't get up any more.

"Challenger Black's Houndour is unable to battle. The score is 1-0 in favour of Gym Leader Lenora." Hawes announced.

"Damn," Black cursed, "That Herdier is strong! Octa, show off your newly evolved skills!"

"With pleasure." Octa stepped forward.

"Octa, begin with Growth!"

Octa grew five lengthy vines, one from his tail, one from each hand, and two more from the leaves on his back. His opponent tried to use Octa's momentary distraction to take him down, but Octa dodged the attack with an incredibly agile slither. Then, when his opponent had passed him, he Vine Whipped him with all five vines, causing five ugly marks on the Herdier's skin. Schliemann tried to attack him, but he whipped up a Leaf Tornado much larger than Boreas had ever seen him use, which caught the Herdier and blew him right back to his trainer, wounded.

"Gym Leader Lenora's Herdier is unable to battle. The score is 1-1!" Hawes pronounced.

"That's quite the pokémon!" Lenora complimented Octa as she threw another pokéball, "But no matter how grim the situation, I'll use my scientific skills to find a winning strategy! Go, Dubois!"

Octa bowed to salute the Watchog that appeared from the pokéball, and tried to Vine Whip it, but it managed to jump in between his attacks, and hit him with a bone-crushing Retaliate that connected with a phenomenal noise and launched him off his feet, several metres through the air before he landed on the ground. For a moment it seemed the battle was over, but then Octa got back up. He began counter-attacking the Watchog, but it was clear that Dubois was faster and even stronger than the Herdier was.

"Isn't he amazing?" Toxica whispered reverently. She was intently staring at Octa, blushing and with a perverted grin on her face.

"I guess." Boreas said, rather annoyed by her.

"He's so strong, and cool, and smart, and attractive..." she gushed.

Toxica was really beginning to get on Boreas' nerves, but he couldn't help but agree with her that evolution had increased Octa's abilities by an impressive amount. He wondered when he would evolve, an then he wondered what he would evolve into. He had never really given the matter thought before, but now he realised that he would have to decide at some point what he wanted to be, or be stuck with something random for the rest of his life. He remembered how easy Zeph had found the choice and how he had always known he wanted to be a Jolteon. Tears shot into his eyes as he realised with a pang of grief that Zeph would never get to be a Jolteon. _Damn,_ he thought, _I thought I was over it..._

Drawing a deep breath, he managed to calm himself down enough to think about what _he_ wanted. _I could be a Leafeon like Mum. _He pictured himself as a Leafeon, walking in a forest and enjoying the warm summer weather instead of suffering in it. He really liked the idea. _Yeah, I want to be a Leafeon._

But then he realised that being an Espeon would be great as well. He thought of all the things he could do with psychic powers. Then he was suddenly snapped out of his reverie by a yelp of pain from Octa and Toxica drawing a startled breath as Octa was violently crushed between his enemy's Take Down and the bookcase. It seemed things were not going well for Octa: while his enemy was clearly hurt and losing energy, Octa himself seemed to be at the end of his abilities.

He missed the Watchog, who quickly retreated after pinning Octa to the bookcase and was now getting ready to finish it. Octa extended his vines, and Dubois was ready to dodge them as he charged, but Octa didn't attack his enemy with his vines, but the floor. He pushed himself off the ground with his vines and launched himself over the top of the two metres-tall bookcase. Immediately after landing on the other side of it, he pushed the bookcase, which was severely weakened due to the several Take Downs it had absorbed. With a monumental creaking, the bookcase fell over, right on top of the charging Watchog who couldn't get away in time.

The three humans immediately rushed over and together they pulled the bookcase up far enough that they could rescue the Watchog from under it. "I'm sorry about messing up your library like this." Black apologised.

"No need to be." Lenora said, returning her Watchog to his pokéball after checking if he was okay. "I suppose having a battle in a library is just asking for it. I should probably battle outside from now on."

Hawes seemed to suddenly remember his role as judge. "Gym Leader Lenora's Watchog can't battle. Challenger Black has won the match!"

"That was so cool!" Toxica praised Octa.

"I just thought about what Boreas would do in my situation, and did so. It worked quite staggeringly well, didn't it?"

"We should go celebrate your victory and evolution this evening, Octa!" Toxica said. "Remember that pub with the pokémon serving we passed on the way here? We should go there for some dinner!"

"Yeah," Boreas said, "We should go celebrate your victory and evolution there."

"Uhm..." Toxica said, "I meant just Octa and me, really."

"Yeah," Boreas smirked, "So did I."

"Why don't we all three of us go celebrate?" Octa intermitted.

Both the others sighed. "Hmpf, fine." they grumbled.

–

That evening all three were having a lot of fun on the pub's terrace.

"...So with all my strength I launched myself upwards at least five metres, still only barely reaching the top of the gargantuan bookcase, and I pulled my limbs and tail as close to me as I could, for I could've broken my neck if I had hit the bookcase and landed badly as a result. Then, with a phenomenal thud nearly breaking my ankles, I landed on the ground and immediately began executing the second part of my brilliant plan: I set my shoulder and all vines to the mighty bookcase, and with an outpouring of titanic strength I managed to topple it, so my opponent was crushed by the colossal falling bookcase." He finished his glass of wine. "In the name of snowman Rayquaza, some days I amaze even myself."

"That's the fifth time you've told that story," Boreas said, "and every time you tell it it gets better."

"That's because I tell it better each time, my dear fellow." he poured himself another glass, "Of course, you inspired me to it. A toast, to my good friend Boreas: as clever as a brain pie, and just as impulsively rash as one."

They toasted and drank from their glasses, though Boreas was pretty sure something had gone wrong mid-metaphor.

"Of course," Toxica, drinking with a straw due to her lack of arms, said, "You were also incredibly brave to fight that Watchamacallithog in the first place."

"Oh yes!" Octa agreed, "It was a foul, monstrous, hideous, dangerous, powerful, gigantic,-"

"Don't forget smelly." Boreas intermitted.

"Yes, thank you, my dear fellow, I shan't. Smelly. Very smelly. As smelly as the moist hole of a Skuntank suffering from terminal colon cancer. I do not know if you are familiar with that particular smell, but smelly 'twas. A smell that would have frightened off an anosmic Muk. What was I talking about again?"

"Your fiendish opponent." Boreas reminded him.

"Of course! And what a smelly creature 'twas! Smelly and hideous enough to make a grown pirate weep and wish for his mother to please give him a cookie!"

"Terrifying!" Toxica added.

"Grotesque!" Boreas added.

"Ferocious!" Toxica added.

"Nauseating!" Boreas added.

"Indeed." Octa agreed, "It must've been hand-picked by Giratina himself."

"From the darkest corners of the Distortion World." Boreas added, "Where a thousand and five Hydreigons scream for naught."

"Yes, that particular spot!" Octa agreed.

"Not hand-picked!" Toxica disagreed, "Banished! Banished because old Giratina was too scared of it stealing his dark throne made of forty-two obsidian Garchomp-skulls!"

"Forty-seven!" Boreas improved.

"Forty-twelve, actually." Toxica bettered herself. "And Octa defeated all forty-twelve... What were they again?"

"So I did!" Octa said, "A toast to me!"

They toasted again and downed their glasses. "Boreas, pour me another glass, please? I'm an arm short of being able to do it myself." Toxica asked.

Boreas tried to pour her another glass, but after the first few drops nothing came out any more. "Hmm..." Boreas said, "must be clogged."

He looked into the bottle and saw it was not clogged, just empty. "It's empty." he announced gravely.

Octa chuckled. "A blessing in disguise, my dear fellow, for I do think we've all had quite enough."

Boreas and Toxica couldn't possibly disagree. "Did we pay already?" Toxica asked.

"Yes, remember, when we ordered the food and the wine."

"I'd toast Black right now for giving us the money if we had wine left to toast with." Octa said.

"We had to work for it, though." Boreas said, "Or rather, we had to work to make him understand what we wanted."

"Great guy, Black." Octa said, "But he has an unmatched ability of not understanding what you're saying. But he _is_ friendly."

"Brave." Toxica added.

"Team Plasma!" Boreas said.

"Yes, he is all that too. Noble and Team Pla- Hang on, no, I don't believe he is a member of Team Plasma, my dear fellow."

"No, not Black in Team Plasma, but just Team Plasma. Look over there!"

"'tsounds to me like you've had quite too much to dri- Arceus' balls! You're right!"

Several Team Plasma grunts were walking through the twilighted town, looking around to see if no one was following them.

"C'mon." Boreas said, jumping to the ground. He fought a momentary battle with gravity over whether or not he would manage to remain standing, and won. "Let's follow them, they're going in the Gym's direction."


	15. The Stolen Skull

Part Three: Double: Evolutions and Trouble

Chapter Fifteen: The Stolen Skull

When Team Plasma arrived at the museum, they started trying to open the door without setting off the alarm.

"I propose one of us leaves to get Black and Lenora," Octa whispered, "While the other two stays here to observe Plasma's actions and, if the possibility should arise, thwart them. My dear fellow,you're the fastest runner, would you do the honours of getting human reinforcements?"

Boreas liked neither the idea of running away from the action or the idea of leaving a tipsy Toxica alone with Octa. "I think it would be better if Toxica was the one to get help."

"And I think it would be better if _you_ went to get Black!" Toxica bristled.

"No, Octa may need my help here, so you should go."

"Well, he may need my help too!"

"Boreas has a point, I'd really rather have his wits on my side should the need to stop Team Plasma arise," Octa said. "Toxica, would you please go fetch Black? Pip pip!"

Giving Boreas a foul look, Toxica said "Okay" and left.

A minute after Toxica left, Team Plasma managed to get through the door without setting off the alarm. "We have to stop them!" Boreas started running off, but was stopped by a hand on his shoulder.

"Hold on, my dear fellow." Octa said.

"C'mon, let's go! We can't let them do whatever they want in the museum!"

"And how are we going to stop them, hmm? Methinks the tipsy two of us don't stand much chance against twelve grunts carrying Arceus knows how many pokémon."

Boreas stopped. "I hadn't thought about that."

"Well, that is your general problem. Rash behaviour is what causes one to get into trouble."

"Yes, and pride is what keeps one there," Boreas retorted.

Octa was about to deliver a comeback to that when Team Plasma came bursting out of the door, their leader carrying the skull of the Dragonite skeleton.

Boreas escaped from Octa's grip. "I don't care how bad our chances are, we can't let them get away!" He ran at Team Plasma and stood in their path growling.

"Hey, look guys! It's a cute little Vulpix!" A grunt said.

Boreas growled to make it clear that they wouldn't get past him and that he didn't appreciate being called a Vulpix. "Haha, look, it's growling. Let's take it to Sage Gorm, we may get a small reward."

A couple of them threw pokéballs that Boreas easily dodged and escaped from. Then they sent out a mass of Scraggies, Sandiles, Patrats, Trubbishes, and Purrloins. The whole group of them attacked Boreas, when suddenly a Leaf Tornado knocked a lot of them away. "I wonder why I keep rescuing you from tribulation you get yourself into." Octa, standing next to him, said.

"Hey, I didn't ask for your help!"

"Quite, but you did need it."

"Hey, a Servine, Sage Gorm will certainly reward us for that one! Surround them!"

The pokémon quickly surrounded Boreas and Octa. "Excellent," Octa said. "Do you have any other brilliant ideas?"

Then, suddenly, a wave of water from the river washed over the land, flooring several Plasma grunts, and a furious female voice cried out: "How dare you desecrate Draco's remains? You'll pay for that!"

A Scraggy was knocked down by another aquatic attack, and then Boreas saw the source of the attacks: a thin, serpentine blue pokémon. He didn't know what species she was, as he had never seen a pokémon like her.

"Goodness gracious," Octa spoke reverently, "'tis a Dratini! Let us help her defeat Team Plasma!"

They joined the fight alongside the Dratini, but it was soon clear that they were just outnumbered too badly to win. All three were tiring rapidly, when they heard Lenora's voice:

"What's going on here?"

"Uh oh, it's the Gym Leader! Let's skedaddle!" As per usual, they threw some smoke bombs for a quick escape.

Once the smoke cleared, Boreas could see the Dratini was very upset. "No! In the name of Rayquaza, I failed!"

"Don't worry." Boreas reassured her. "I can still smell their trail, so I can lead you to them."

"Oh!" It seemed almost as if she hadn't noticed him and Octa until now, "That would be great. I have to get that skull back, you see, it was once the progenitor of my entire family."

"Then you descend from that Dragonite?" Octa asked.

The Dratini nodded. "By thirty generations."

"Oh well," Octa boasted, "My family goes back thirty-five generations. Our progenitor's name was Equinox, a truly grandiose Serperior whom-"

"Well, _mine_ may only go back thirty generations, but those thirty generations do constitute a history of five thousand years. I doubt your thirty-five go back even a tenth of that time."

Octa bit his lip nervously. "Well, quite. Perhaps my family does not go back that long, but in the end, 'tis all about the achievements of its members, is it not?"

"Quite," Boreas said imitating Octa's voice, "And correct me if I am thoroughly mistaken, old chap, but did one of thine ancestors not invent the ballpoint pen?"

"No, not quite," Octa said, annoyed at Boreas' mockery, "but I do have an ancestor who was quite possibly single-handedly responsible for the success of Sir Edward Slateport's expedition on which he discovered Hoenn."

"Oh." the Dratini said, "Well, _my _ancestors were worshipped as gods by humans for several thousands of years across an entire continent. My name's Capella, by the way."

"Others call me Boreas, for 'tis my name. My acquaintance here, a gentleman of great skill and ego, is named Octavianus, but he prefers others to say Octa when using the vocative, for Octavianus, though a glorious name to bear, is quite too polysyllabiccally sesquipedalian to use in conversation."

Then Boreas saw that Toxica had returned with Black and Lucius. "You're a pair of loonies, that's what you are." Lucius said by way of greeting.

Capella was looking rather confused after the impersonations and the sudden arrivals. "O...Kay... So, let's follow them, I'm sure your humans will get the idea soon enough."

–

_Present_

"Hold on." Aqua interrupted, "I'm getting stiff from all this sitting, I need a stretch."

She got up and stretched her back. Boreas couldn't take his eyes off her gorgeous body as she stretched. His eyes traced her long, strong finned tail, her wide hips, her waist, but when he reached her head, he saw she was looking at him with an eyebrow arched quizzically. He quickly looked away, feeling himself blush like a tamato.

"I should warn you:" Aqua spoke, her voice very close to his ear, "males have died for this body."

"I don't doubt it," Boreas responded as he looked back to see she was now sitting very close to him, "but I would rather live for it, if it's all the same to you."

"I may just take you up on that offer..."Aqua whispered.

They looked deep into each other's eyes, and it felt as if time had stopped. Then suddenly a voice called "Boreas! Where are you?"

Boreas closed his eyes in annoyance. _Not now, _he thought, _can't you wait just a bit longer?_

He heard a splash, opened his eyes, and saw Aqua had disappeared. "Aqua?" he asked, looking into the water, "Come back, please, it's just Black!" but Aqua didn't resurface, and he didn't see her underwater either.

The motorboat came by and its human pilot saw him on the rock: "Boreas! Thank all the legendaries I found you again! Come on board!"

Boreas looked in the water around the rock again and saw nothing, so he sighed and jumped into the water, swimming back to the boat. After he had swam a few metres, Aqua's head suddenly appeared from the water right next to him, gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, and disappeared under water again. Boreas was so surprised and joyed that he completely forgot how to swim for a moment and sunk underwater, accidentally breathing in some water. Coughing and spluttering, but with his cheek feeling warm and rosy, he resurfaced. He tried to see where Aqua was, but she had disappeared again. He was starting to believe the stories about Vaporeons being able to melt into water. When he reached the boat after a few more metres, he was lifted on board by Black, who promptly hugged him and ended up all wet.

"I'm sorry, Boreas," he said, "I didn't notice you had fallen out for a very long time. I'm just glad I found you again."

He put Boreas down, and Boreas immediately shook the water from his fur. Only then did he notice that there was also a Servine in the boat, who was now looking rather wet and annoyed.

"Oh, sorry, I didn't see you, Octa." Boreas apologised.

"Quite," Octa muttered.

"So, how did things go with those grunts? Is everyone alright?"

"Yes, we were all fine, my dear fellow, until Black suddenly showed up without you and made me rather worried for your well-being."

Boreas hadn't considered that yet. "Sorry."

"Now, Black may believe you fell out of the boat, but I know you better than that and thus suspect you jumped out because it seemed like a really good idea at one point."

"You're quite right there."

"I know I am. What puzzles me is this: what prompted such behaviour?"

Boreas arched an eyebrow suggestively. "Can you think of nothing that might make a male act like that?"

"A lady?"

"That's right."

"You jumped off a boat on a river while having little to no swimming experience because you saw a lady?" he sighed, "You have surpassed yourself, my dear fellow."

"Not just any lady." Boreas defended himself, "She was... So cute, and nice, and gorgeous, and smart, and sexy... I mean, her fur was so soft and blue and gleamy, and her tail was so long and strong, and her smile was blinding... And her eyes... Oh, her eyes..."

"I do hope she had two of them, my dear fellow." Octa quipped.

"I'm serious, Octa! She was completely worth jumping off the boat for. And she even was interested in me too. She wanted to me to tell about all our adventures, and she was flirting with me..."

"Fine, so you jumped off a boat on a river while having little to no swimming experience because you saw a perfect goddess of love."

"I didn't jump off directly. I tried to ask Black to just stop the boat and wait for me while I went to talk to her, but-"

"-He didn't understand a word you said." Octa finished his sentence. "So, I expect she must have been surprised at you jumping off the boat to meet her. What did you say to this..."

"Vaporeon. Her name was Aqua. I told her that my Blizzards were usually powerful enough to freeze a Heatran, but with someone as hot as her nearby I couldn't even manage a cooling breeze."

Octa burst into laughter. "I do hope that's a joke."

"It isn't."

"My dear fellow, the one time you actually tried to use a Blizzard you almost got everyone in the room, including yourself, killed. And I quite doubt it could have frozen a Heatran.

"I know."

"So you were beginning you communication with this lady with a lie. And directly telling her she's "hot"... Not quite the way one treats a lady, my dear fellow. Did she tell you to bugger off?"

"No, actually." Boreas said with a grin, "she laughed and asked me to join her on that rock."

"Well, I would have."

"Yeah..." Boreas said, "I'm not about to tell you that you're hot in the first place. Anyway, we had a most pleasant conversation until you two suddenly appeared and chased her off."

"Oh, I _do _apologise for thinking your life might be in danger and attempting to save it."

Boreas tried to engage Octa in conversation, but it seemed he was not interested in hearing a detailed description of Aqua's cute, perky ears. So pretty soon, Boreas was once again staring off at the horizon in boredom. He hung a bit over the edge of the boat and looked down into the water. Suddenly a splash of water hit his face and a pretty blue face surfaced very close to his as Aqua grabbed a hold of the boat.

"Boo!" she said, giggling at Boreas' startled reaction.

"Aqua! I'm so glad to see you again!"

"I could hardly just let you go," she said.

"I-"

"Not without hearing the rest of your story," she added, somewhat to Boreas' disappointment.

"Oh, okay, I can continue the story. But why don't you join me on board? It can't be easy to hold on to the boat like that."

Aqua climbed on board, taking a large splash of water with her. Octa and Black turned in surprise. "A Vaporeon!" Black enthused, "Octa, Leaf Tornado!"

"No, I don't think I will." Octa refused.

"Boreas, Ice Beam! C'mon, listen to me!"

"Boreas," Aqua asked, "could you please tell him not to try and catch me? I don't like that kind of behaviour. At least," she added with a wink, "not from humans."

Boreas growled as Black grabbed a pokéball, but he just didn't listen. When he raised the pokéball, Boreas figured there was only one way to stop him and Ice Beamed the hand he was throwing with. Black yelped in pain as the ultra-cold beam hit his hand, and the pokéball flew away and harmlessly landed into the river.

"Okay, fine! If you don't want me to catch it, just say so!" Black went back to steering.

"Thanks," Aqua said with a teasing smile, "but I thought you couldn't even produce a cool breeze with someone as hot as me around?"

"Uh..." Boreas stammered, trying to think of something, "Blizzards and Ice Beams work very differently, that's why I can still make an Ice Beam. I couldn't do a Blizzard, though."

Octa decided to introduce himself at that point. "You must be Aqua," he said, "My name is Oc-"

"-tavianus, but your nickname is Octa, I know. Boreas told me all about you."

"Interesting, he told me all about you as well."

"Oh?" Aqua said with a twinkle in her eyes, "I don't hope he told you _all_ about me."

"I don't think he did. But he did give me quite the detailed physical description."

"Hm-hm." Aqua said with a half-smile that made Boreas feel even more embarrassed than Octa's words alone already made him feel. "I'm sure he did."

Trying to change the conversation's topic, Boreas said: "Why don't I continue telling you about our trouble with Team Plasma?"

"Great idea!"Aqua said, sitting down next to him.

"Do you mind if I listen in, my dear fellow?" Octa asked.

Several possible answers shot through Boreas' mind, all along the lines of "Of course I mind you listening to me talking to the girl of my dreams and making any potential flirting rather awkward, idiot!" but instead of saying any of these rather rude things, he said:

"Of _course_ I don't mind!"

"The boat's too small not to overhear you in the first place," Octa apologised.

_Then ask Black to return you to your pokéball!_ "Yeah, you're right. So as I was telling you earlier, we met Capella the Dratini when Team Plasma stole the Dragonite skull, and together with her and the Gym Leader, we pursued Team Plasma out of town. They soon entered a maze of a forest named Pinwheel Forest, and started leaving individual grunts behind to slow us down. That didn't work very well, as they were absolutely no match for us and Lenora. We kept chasing them and slowly gained ground..."


	16. A Good Servant, but a Cruell Master

Chapter Sixteen: A Good Servant, but a Cruell Master

_Past_

"...I just don't know," Boreas said while dodging the Sandile's jaws, "First I thought I wanted to be a Leafeon, then an Espeon, then a Glaceon, then I came back to Leafeon again, and now I just don't know. What do you think I should evolve into?" He counter-attacked the Sandile, knocking it out.

"I see." Octa, defeating a Scraggy with a Leaf Tornado, said, "I think it might be fun if you were to evolve into Leafeon, together with Toxica we would be the three grass-type amigos. On the other hand, you don't quite possess the temperament of a grass-type."

"What do you mean?" Boreas asked as they moved on from the defeated Plasma grunt.

"Well, us grass-types are all to varying degrees vegetable. And being vegetable, sometimes one finds one has to do what plants do: just be patient and calmly let everything come to you. Methinks that is not quite your style, my dear fellow. Of course, evolving to a Leafeon might be an important learning experience for you, and as such it might teach you some patience and equanimity. However, methinks you might make a good Flareon. Of course, the idea of another fire-type in the team seems rather less appealing to me than another grass-type, but considering it would still be you it would not be problematic."

Boreas hadn't considered being a Flareon yet. "Maybe you're right. Being a Flareon would be cool."

"I know. Incidentally, methinks we might be getting close to the fellow carrying the cranium. If I counted correctly, the grunt we defeated just now was the eleventh."

Boreas frowned. "Did we just defeat a grunt?"

"Yes, remember, while we were discussing your potential future evolutionary metamorphosis."

"Oh yeah."

Suddenly a human in the most bizarre clothing Boreas had ever seen jumped out of a tree right in front of them. Boreas started growling at the intruder, but then Lenora greeted him. "Burgh! You startled me, what are you doing here?"

If someone had taken an insane Darumaka, trained it to walk upright, glued a loofah to the top of its head, strategically shaved its eyebrows, injected it with an almost lethal overdose of every psychostimulant on the planet, poured super glue all over it, and then let it loose to rampage through a clothing store and a working paint factory, the result would not look exactly like Burgh, but those who knew him would certainly consider the similarity eerie. "I was looking at the bugs in the trees to get inspiration for my art." Burgh explained.

"Did you see Team Plasma pass by?" Lenora asked.

"No, but I did hear someone run by. That distracted me from the bugs, so I looked around and saw you."

"Then they're close by?" Lenora asked.

"Oh yes, just up in the tree I jumped down from."

"Team Plasma, not the bugs!"

"Whom?"

"The guys we're chasing!"

"You're chasing someone?"

"Yes! Team Pla- Oh, forget it, just come with us, we might need your help!"

As they ran on, Lenora introduced Burgh and Black: "Burgh, this is Black, a trainer who's on a quest to collect all badges and has already defeated Chili and me. Black, this is Burgh, Castelia's Gym Leader."

"I prefer to think of myself as an insectious artist in the first place, and Gym Leader in the second, though."

"Insectious?" Black inquired.

"Yeah," Burgh nodded.

They rapidly approached the final Plasma grunt, and were soon close enough to hear his running footsteps ahead. Then they entered a clearing after the grunt. A small river ran through the middle of the clearing, and towards the edge there was a big, moss-covered rock that pulsated with odd energy. The exhausted, panting grunt handed the skull to a bald old man in blue clothing standing by the river.

"Hoots mon, how are ye holding up, laddie?" the goatee-wearing man asked the grunt in a Scottish accent.

"I... Have failed, Sage Gorm!" the grunt panted, "We couldn't lose the pursuers, they managed to follow me here!"

"'Tis nae important, laddie." Gorm said, "I will defeat them meself. 'Tis even better this way, lad, as this allows me to fix it so they never interfere with us again."

Lenora stepped forward. "You're outnumbered, Gorm, you're not fixing anything. Hand over the skull and come with us."

Gorm laughed. "I be one of Team Plasma's Seven Sages, lassie. Even if there are three of ye, ye cannae defeat me. And don't start pointing out that ye are Gym Leaders. That doesnae matter. Ghetsis, the founder of Team Plasma and another of the Seven Sages made sure all of us are much more powerful than even the strongest of Gym Leaders, let alone B-list Gym Leaders like yerself and Burgh."

"Don't break your arm while patting yourself on the back, Gorm. Just give back that skull and no one has to get hurt. What do you want with it in the first place?"

"Ah, now that be a good question, lass. As an airchaeologist, I take it ye're familiar with the fact that a fossil can be revived?"

Lenora nodded.

"We are going to revive this Dragonite. It is one of the most powerful pokémon in existence, and will be a great asset to our cause."

Capella seemed to be just about ready to attack him at this. "I can't let you do that," Lenora spoke as she and Burgh threw six pokéballs each to unleash their full teams so that their side stood seventeen pokémon strong.

"Gorm," Black said, "you can't win, give up now!"

Gorm swept aside his blue cloak to reveal six black and yellow pokéballs on his belt. Boreas immediately rushed over to him, picking up the biggest stone he could hold on the way, climbed into his leg, grabbed a pokéball with a Gastrodon in it, and smashed the stone into the button sideways. But to his surprise the button didn't crack or break in any way. He tried again, to no result. Then a powerful hand grabbed the scruff of his neck and he was lifted into the air.

Black approached Gorm. "If you do anything to hurt him..."

With his free hand, Gorm threw a pokéball, releasing a gigantic Gyarados between him and Black. "What will happen if I do, lad?" he asked as Black backed away from the huge beast. "Thought ye could pull the same trick twice, dinnae ye?" he said to Boreas, "When Rood told aboot his defeat at yer trainer's hands, we all switched ta ultra balls, which are much more resilient than normal pokéballs." He tossed Boreas over his shoulder, and as he flew through the air in a large parabole, Boreas saw him throw his other five ultra balls, unleashing a Gastrodon, a Carracosta, a Crawdaunt, a Cloyster, and a Kingdra. The grunt sent out a Sandile and a Scraggy. "Return yer pokémon, lad." Gorm said, "they wadnae make any difference in this battle, and I dinnae want ta get them hurt."

Boreas plunged into the river, and started flailing about wildly to try and stay afloat, as he didn't know how to swim. Then a massive wave flooded the river and took Boreas with it, as it washed over the clearing. Helpless in the massive wave, he hit Octa, knocked him over and landed on top of him, faces mere centimetres apart.

"This really isn't the time, guys!" Lucius, swimming clumsily, snapped.

Boreas got off Octa and felt himself blush. "It's not what it looked like!"

Lucius smiled a crooked smile. "I won't tell anyone."

Octa rolled his eyes. "Oh, do be quiet. We have more immediate concerns."

The six powerful water pokémon were creating wave after wave, rapidly flooding the entire clearing. Boreas managed to find a way to stay somewhat afloat in the increasing water levels. Octa hit the enemy Gastrodon with a Leaf tornado, and it cringed in pain with deep cuts from the leaves all over.

"Octa," Boreas cheered, "You're hurting it!"

"Quite." Octa basked in the praise, "As a grass-type, I have a natural advantage to these aquatic creatures, despite their power and-" an Ice Beam missed his head by millimetres, leaving a white trail of frost where it had grazed his face, "-Holy smokes, that was close!"

Boreas was fiercely jerked away by a powerful current as the water-types had finished flooding the clearing to their liking and were now making whirlpools, currents, and gyres in the water. Boreas was powerlessly forced over the whole battlefield by all sorts of conflicting currents. He passed Kindgra breaching the water and producing a bright, luminous pulse that hit Burgh's Dwebble directly. Small chips of its rocky shell rained everywhere. He saw several attacks just bounce off Cloyster's shell harmlessly, and saw Carracosta effortlessly flicking Lenora's Minccino away as it tried to attack. He found himself in a spot with calmer water were three familiar looking leaves broke the water's surface. With horror, he realised Toxica was drowning and tried to get her above water by pulling on the leaves. She surfaced as a massive beam of high-pressured water blasted by.

"Hey, what do you think you're doing?" she asked angrily.

"Saving you from drowning!"

"I won't drown as long as my leaves are above the water, idiot, and I was keeping an eye on-" Suddenly she kicked him in the right side of his face, kicking his head to the left, and immediately he felt a sharp cut on the right of his neck as the Crawdaunt's attempt to decapitate him with its mighty pincer was barely foiled by her quick reaction. There was no time to thank her, however, as the Crawdaunt immediately proceeded to try and cut him in halves. Boreas tried to swim away, but his swimming was really awful, and though Toxica tried to stop the Crawdaunt, it had its mighty pincer in place within two seconds. Just when it seemed Boreas would have to go through the rest of his very short life half as heavy as he used to be, a heavily bloodied Schliemann the Herdier came flying out of nowhere and hit the Crawdaunt's claw, making it give Boreas' tail a bit of a trim instead.

Toxica produced a cloud of spores that Boreas was wise enough to stay out of, but completely enveloped the Crawdaunt as it Crabhammered Schliemann out of his way to get to Boreas, who was swimming away. Toxica yelped and a second later Boreas felt the sharp pincer close around the base of his tail, lifting him up upside down while it lifted up Toxica, whom had been grabbed around her head by the other pincer. For a moment the Crawdaunt just stared at him with small, cold eyes, and Boreas felt mortified that he could be about to lose his tail.

"Please," he begged the Crawdaunt, "don't cut it off. I surrender, just let me go and I'll leave the battle." Of course he wasn't actually going to surrender while his friends were still fighting but just making false promises to save his tail. Toxica said something, but it was unintelligible as the pincer covered her mouth.

The Crawdaunt's small eyes seemed to consider it for a moment, then turned an expression that might have been bundled with a malevolent grin in a creature with facial expressions.

"No, please," Boreas negotiated, "I'm very attached to my tail. I know, I'll even turn to your side if you let me go!"

The Crawdaunt's cold eyes kept that same malignant expression, and Boreas was just starting to think about how nice it had been to have had a tail until now, when the Crawdaunt was stricken from behind by five vines, making it twitch in pain and drop Toxica and Boreas.

Octa was going to say something, but had to swallow it when Crawdaunt angrily snarled out at him with a big pincer. Boreas jumped onto Crawdaunt and tried to Bite it, but its thick exoskeleton was impenetrable to him. He did provide enough of a distraction for Octa and Toxica to hit it multiple times with grass-type attacks, though. After a while it seemed to realise that Boreas was no threat to it and it ignored him to attempt to Guillotine Octa instead. Boreas climbed to the crustacean's head and dug two of his claws into the only vulnerable part of the Crawdaunt: its small, pebble-like eyes. The Crawdaunt hissed in pain and attempted to kill his blinder, but Boreas just jumped off his enemy now that it had effectively been made unable to battle.

Then a massive wave caught Boreas as the Gyarados surfaced between him and his two grass-type friends and launched itself to the air. Just behind its head, a much smaller serpentine creature with one of her wing-like ears missing had latched herself on. It seemed that while she wasn't actually managing to hurt the Gyarados, she was still distracting it enough that it didn't partake in the battle.

After finding another relatively tranquil part of the water, Boreas looked around. It seemed Crawdaunt was the only enemy who had been made unable to battle, while only about half of their side was still fighting. He saw Octa, Toxica and Dubois the Watchog battle the Gastrodon together in a very shallow part of the water. They seemed to be doing surprising amounts of damage, and Octa was adopting quite an arrogant swagger in his fighting when an Ice Beam suddenly came from the left and hit him right in the chest. Boreas screamed in fury as he saw his friend collapse, and tried to charge at the enemies, but found the current too strong. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Octa stand up again, albeit with a face screwed up in a pained expression.

Though Boreas didn't know it, the Ice Beam that had hit Octa had actually been intended for Burgh's Leavanny by its creator, the Cloyster. Leavanny had dodged it, however, and it had passed through a particularly large wave that Kingdra was using to try to drown the several pokémon that were battling it together. The Ice Beam had lost most of its energy to the wave, and this is how Octa managed to survive taking it to the heart.

When he swam through the Gastrodon, avoiding the currents, Boreas found himself in a very deep part of the water, and then the Gyarados surfaced once again just in front of him, still trying to remove Capella from his neck. As it flew up into the air, Boreas grabbed a hold of its fin in an attempt to help Capella. As they flew above the battlefield, he crawled up the Gyarados' body, finding himself next to Capella, whose left ear seemed to have been torn off, leaving only some heavily bleeding remnants. The Gyarados flew through the trees' foliage, attempting to remove the pests on his back.

"Boreas!" shouted Capella, "I'm trying to get to its" they dived underwater, "gills, but it keeps protecting them!"

"Hgrblurplplpl!" said Boreas, realising he couldn't speak underwater. The Gyarados swam upside down and scraped its back to the ground, and with a massive thud, Boreas was torn off its back. He gasped for air when he reached the surface. A current so strong he barely managed to keep his head above the surface forced him along until he reached a shallow and pretty calm spot and found himself right next to Octa and four others, fighting Kingdra and seemingly losing.

"Ah, my dear fellow," Octa greeted him, barely ducking out of the way of a Dragon Pulse, "'Tis my supreme desire for the next few words out of you mouth to be "I have a plan," for we could use a plan as cunning as a fox who used to be professor of cunning at Oxford, but has moved on and is currently working for the United Nations commission of international cunning planning."

The water level rose rapidly. "Have you ever been in a situation where you stopped talking like that?" Boreas asked incredulously as the Kingdra made a rapid spiral current that was developing into a massive whirlpool.

Octa gleamed with pride. "Never, my dear fellow! 'Tis the mark of a great mind to have the capability to remain eloquent in even the most perilous situations. But do you have a plan?"

A rogue downward current pulled Boreas under, and when he resurfaced he said: "No. Not right now!"

They spun around ever faster and closer to the centre were the mighty Kingdra was waiting with a malicious grin. Lenora's Minccino reached the middle first, and as soon as she did so, the Kingdra and the current it produced pulled her deep underwater. "You must have _some_ idea!" Octa pleaded.

A light flashed underwater five times, and the Kingdra resurfaced alone. "No. Except..." Boreas had a faint idea, "This forest is rumoured to be the home of Virizion! We could call for his help!"

Octa stared at him incredulously. "Honestly?" he asked, "Your brilliant plan is to hope for legendary interference? I have come to expect better ideas from you."

"I never said it was brilliant!" Boreas defended himself as he was approaching the Kingdra closer and closer, "Why don't you think of something better if you don't like it?"

"Fine, then, we'll try calling Virizion." Together, they called: "One for all, and all for one!"

But Virizion didn't appear. "Well, 'twas worth attempting, I suppose."

Boreas was caught in the inner current of the whirlpool, and approached the grinning Kingdra was massive speed. "No! Boreas!" he heard Octa shout, but there was no fighting against the current. He reached the centre, spinning sickeningly fast, and was forced underwater by the Kingdra. He tried to fight to get back up, but he was absolutely no match for the Kingdra and the current. As the current trapped him underwater, a bright light shone from Kingdra's mouth as it prepared to execute him with a Dragon Pulse.

Suddenly Boreas' every cell blazed with a bright white light, and he was filled with a feeling of joy and power, despite his impending death. After a moments confusion, he felt as if every part of his body was connected to the forest around, and noticed he was growing with amazing speed. His ears and tail were losing their fur and turning flat and leaf-like. Leaves were sprouting from his body and his fur was losing length and turning yellow.

_But I don't want to be a Leafeon._

It was a simple realisation, but he was completely sure about it. Despite what he had thought earlier and how much help he could be in the current battle as a Leafeon, he simply didn't want to be one. He concentrated on being an Eevee, and noticed he was shrinking again. The leaves that had sprouted on him fell off into the water, and his fur grew rapidly longer and browner. His ears and tail returned to their old state again, and finally the sense of connection he had felt with the forest around him disappeared. The light stopped, and then Boreas noticed he was no longer underwater but in shallow water with Octa.

"What happened?" Octa asked, "Why did you not evolve?"

"I realised I didn't want to be a Leafeon." Boreas said. "What happened to the whirlpool?"

"The Kingdra was so surprised by your sudden near-evolution it forgot to maintain its whirlpool. Within seconds it ended, and because it had collected so much water for it, all that water flowed away and took us with it. 'Tis good to hear you have narrowed down your choice of evolution, incidentally. Do you intend to keep having epiphanies at the last moment of evolution or do you intend to make a choice beforehand?"

"Just get- I have an idea!"

"Ah, excellent!"

"What if we threatened to kill Gorm? He would probably recall his pokémon then."

"What an uncivilised idea," Octa said.

"They're trying to drown our trainers too, in case you hadn't noticed, and have already killed at least one of us."

"Two wrongs don't make a right."

"Okay, maybe they don't. But unless you want them to kill us all, we should do it anyway. We're on the verge of defeat. We may have defeated three of them, but I don't see us defeating the other three, and there's only six of us left, four if you don't count Karrablast and Munchlax, who are about to disappear into Kingdra's whirlpool. Hey, Leavanny!" he called Burgh's Leavanny swimming by.

"My name is Salvador, you know." The Leavanny said haughtily.

"Sorry, Salvador. I need your help. We're going to take Gorm hostage, and I'll need your scissors for it."

"How shall you get to Gorm?" said Octa, who seemed to have resigned to this course of action, "Cloyster is guarding him fiercely, Ice Beaming anyone whom approaches. I assume you have considered a way of dealing with this lethal icy tank?"

"We'll have to distract it," said Boreas.

"And by we you mean me," said Octa.

Boreas nodded.

"Alright, then I shall go distract the mighty creature that can probably kill me with a single attack and is nearly impervious to damage." He sighed, "you know, I really detest ice-types."

Octa approached Gorm on his own, as the others were either distracting and/or being killed by Gyarados or Kingdra or doing their part of the plan. When he approached Gorm, Cloyster rose from the water, slightly opening its shell, and lashed out at him with an Ice Beam that made him shiver though it missed him by more than a metre. Octa retreated a bit, but found that the Cloyster wouldn't follow him. So he Vine Whipped it, to absolutely no effect, except that it tried to kill him with another Ice Beam. So he launched a Leech Seed at it instead. The seed nested in an indent in Cloyster's shell and rapidly grew roots all over it, eventually penetrating the opening and reaching the small black creature inside. As its energy began draining, Octa launched a Leaf Tornado at the Cloyster. Though most of the sharp leaves harmlessly hit the shell, a couple managed to get in, and the Cloyster shivered visibly.

"Oh?" Octa said, "so you do have some weakness. Let me try that again from this safe distance..."

The Cloyster rapidly swam at Octa, shooting Ice Beams. "Muir, come back here!" commanded Gorm, who was treading water with the ease of an experienced swimmer, but it was too late as Salvador had positioned himself on his back with a scissor around his neck.

"Surrender," Boreas growled, "or he cuts your throat."

Though Gorm couldn't understand him, apparently the message was clear as he returned his pokémon to their pokéballs. "Kich! Ye win."

Without the water types to keep the water they had built up around, it all flowed away immediately. As the pokémon trainers tended to their pokémon, Lenora angrily took the skull from Gorm's hands. "You murdered my Minccino, you bastard!"

"Aye, regrettable, but evil must be opposed at all costs. Besides, ye blinded me Crawdaunt."

Lenora slapped him. "That can be healed in a pokécenter, but Agricola is dead forever!"

Gorm didn't care. "'Tisnae so bad anyway, we can afford ta abandon the dragon skull project. We'll be going now."

Before anyone could object, the grunt had thrown his smoke bomb, a minor scuffle happened in the darkness, and Boreas heard several splashes. By the time the smoke cleared, Team Plasma was gone.

–

AUTHOR'S NOTES: It's been a while since I last did a feedback thingie, so I have quite a few reviews to catch up to. (Thanks to all reviewers, by the way)

FEEDBACK: Q: ROFL Turn you into cheese? LOL That Eevee must have tons of imaginary daydreams! ROFL "What if that's made of Eevee meat?" AH HA HA HA HA Cheese...Personally I do not like cheese. I'm a carnivore. I usually prefer pigs' meat rather than EEVEE meat. I mean, who would want to EAT an Eevee? There just so cute!

A: Pigs are pretty cute too, really. Especially the piglets. I also like their attitude towards humans. As Churchill said, dogs will see you as their master, cats will see you as their servant, but a pig will see you as an equal. You're right, though, I wouldn't want to eat Eevee meat.

Pikajenn: Q: Octa, you're so mean! lol! You could really end up putting a damper on how Boreas tells the story. It'll be interesting to see if Octa interrupts the storytelling or if Boreas holds back in plumping up the story at all.

A: Yeah, he will have to hold back on embellishing the story to Aqua, but since I'm not writing the flashback as he tells it to Aqua but from a third-person point of view, we won't notice much of that.

Fractalman: Q: "Ah, good. Did I introduce myself yet? Regardless, my name is Octavianus, but please call me Octa. For Octavianus is a good name to bear, but rather sesquipedalian."  
>I read this twice, then I burst out laughing at the pokemon's use of such a long autological word. tehe!.<p>

A: I really love the word sesquipedalian (and polysyllabic too) for how brilliantly those words exemplify themselves.

Q: Nurse Despair... Wait, is that canon for that city, or is that just a common idea?

A: AFAIK I thought of that name myself, but if you've seen it somewhere else I may have subconsciously copied that idea, or the other person who used that name may have gotten the idea from my fic.

Q: "...forty-two obsidian Garchomp-skulls!"  
>"Forty-seven!" Boreas improved.<br>...the two proposed answers to "life, the universe, and everything". pity you went on to say "forty-twelve".

A: Yeah, they were references to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Star Trek. I believe Rick Berman once jokingly suggested 47 was the answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything corrected for inflation.


	17. The Endless City

Chapter Seventeen: The Endless City

_Present_

"Now hold on, my dear fellow," Octa interrupted.

"What is it?" asked Boreas, annoyed at the interruption.

"'Tis just that my recollection of that battle differs somewhat from yours on one specific point."

"Does it?" said Boreas while giving Octa a dirty look.

"Quite. When that Crawdaunt was about to decaudate you, I don't remember your brave and heroic speech about how 'twas unwise of it to follow Gorm as its master and how it should release Toxica, for killing her would be a most wicked and useless thing to do. As I recall it, you were pleading for your tail's continued attachment to your body and negotiating your surrender when I saved you."

"Were you?" Aqua asked.

_Thanks Octa, _Boreas thought bitterly while smiling apologetically. "Yes, I guess I was. But I was only lying, not actually going to surrender."

"How noble," said Octa.

"Look," snapped Boreas annoyed, "I had to say _something_. I didn't know you were about to rescue us, and I had to try to save my tail and Toxica's life."

"By making false promises."

"Yes, by making false promises. It's a lot more sensible than letting it kill Toxica and cut off my tail."

"I agree," Aqua winked, "it would've been a shame to lose such a nice tail. Though that part sounded a lot cooler when you told it."

Basking in the compliment he had just received, Boreas said: "Well, that's why I embellished it."

"Sure." Aqua said, "_That_ was your motivation behind it."

"Anyway," said Boreas, quickly changing the subject, "I hope you see now what a bunch of bastards Team Plasma is."

"What for?" Aqua asked, "stealing an old fossil skull and attempting to revive it is hardly a heinous crime."

Boreas chuckled. "Don't let Capella hear you say that. She was furious about the desecration of her ancestor's bones. Though that does show how arrogant they are, they will gladly steal something that's not theirs if it so happens to be useful to them, not caring about others. But what is more important, I think, is that Gorm tried to kill us, and actually succeeded in it with Lenora's Minccino."

"Sure, but he was defending. It's not as if he sought you out to try and kill you. And it doesn't invalidate their point that humans and pokémon should be separated."

Octa answered. "No, it does not. But quite a lot of other examples invalidate that position. Think of all the pokémon whose lives have been improved by their friendship with humans. My own family has a long and noble history of friendship with our breeders and trainers. Or take Boreas-"

"I intend to," Aqua shamelessly said.

Boreas felt as if he was melting on the spot and blushed uncontrollably and tried to say something, but couldn't manage anything.

Aqua giggled. "You're very cute when you blush, d'you know that?"

Boreas decided he had to say something. "Yes." _Yes?_ He thought, _what yes?_

"Well, quite," said Octa with an arched eyebrow. "What I meant was: take Boreas _as an example_. Without humans, he would not even be alive to trade innuendos with you today. My dear fellow, did you tell the lady about that unpleasant incident in Castelia yet?"

Boreas realised he hadn't, and that it would likely convince her, but still felt as if his tongue was glued down. "N... No."

"Well, 'twas a few weeks after the skirmish in Pinwheel Forest that we arrived in the luminescent capital. However-"

"I'm telling the story." Boreas said, "As Octa said, it took us a few weeks to get to Castelia. First we had to return to Nacrene to get to the pokécenter, as some of us were pretty badly wounded. I mean, Capella had had most of her ear torn off, and Karel, Burgh's Dwebble had had his shell destroyed by a Dragon Pulse while he was inside it. Luckily the pokécenter was able to heal everyone's wounds and mend all broken bones. After that we spent about a week in Nacrene before we left. But by then Capella had become good friends with us and was satisfied that her ancestor's remains would be better protected, so she decided to come with us."

"As a team member?" Aqua asked.

"Well, she said she's just accompanying us, but she's really become a team member as much as Octa or I now, Black has even used her in Gym battles. Though if you asked her, she would probably still say she's not on the team. Anyway, after a week or two's travel through Pinwheel Forest, we crossed the Skyarrow Bridge into Castelia."

–

_Past_

A breathtaking view opened up as they left the forest behind. The broad mouth of the river opened up wide ahead, the setting Sun's light reflecting off the waves like a million sparkling jewels. Over the river, a bridge spanned, but it was not just any bridge. It was very high, had two levels, and looked as elegant as a Ninetales and a Milotic performing ballet together. Far away on the other side of the river, the Sun was setting behind an incredible number of spires that were only visible because of the sharp contrast they provided in front of the Sun. The Sun itself was deep red, very close to the horizon, and pretty dim, as one could look straight into it without discomfort. A glittering Skarmory flew over while Finneons made small jumps out of the river's water.

"Wow." Boreas gaped in awe at the view.

"Behold," Octa spoke, "Skyarrow Bridge, the only suspension bridge in Unova, as well as the longest and highest bridge in the land, which shall take us to Castelia City, radiant capitol of Unova!"

"Yeah," Lucius said mockingly, "we know."

They walked through the guardhouse and stepped onto the pristine white bridge. The late day's sunlight gleamed off the white surface. The wide bridge travelled upwards in a helical shape at first, making a loop over the stretches of Pinwheel Forest before it went straight ahead to Castelia. Deep below them, waves washed on the shore and salt and fresh water mixed. Between the water and the pedestrian bridge, cars drove over the lower surface. Massive spires that suspended the bridge rose up far above Skyarrow Bridge's surface. To the right, the calm and broad river separated the land into two, while on the left ships floated on the great sea. As they continued over the bridge, the Sun set and twilight set in, making the distant forest behind them disappear into darkness. But as it grew darker, the approaching skyline of Castelia City only became clearer, as it was illuminated with thousands of tiny lights.

Finally the bridge reached the other shore and descended. Castelia's skyline disappeared behind the closest buildings as they neared the ground. After one final look back at the beautiful, illuminated bridge against the dark night, they entered the guardhouse and Castelia.

–

Castelia was astonishing, amazing, abnormal, and many more adjectives beginning with an A. Huge skyscrapers were everywhere, towering high into the sky and dwarfing humans and pokémon alike. And yet, despite the omnipresent grey buildings, the city did not have the lifeless atmosphere of Striaton. Instead it seemed as if everyone on the planet had come to Castelia, making the city a mad and busy hustle.

Despite first appearances, Castelia was not all buildings. When they walked through the city the day after they had arrived, Black and his pokémon found the large park that formed the city's centre, Nucleus Park. The park was a complete chaos were people sunbathed, danced, performed music, flew kites, sold ice cream, trained their pokémon, discussed philosophy, walked over the bicycle paths, cycled over the pedestrian paths, swam in fountains, carved their initials into trees, and much, much more.

They also found the docks of the city, with their many piers. Ships from all over the world arrived at the docks and made Castelia's endless ensemble of people and pokémon ever more endless.

Now Black and his pokémon were exploring the inner city. They entered a street that was devoid of people. Boreas' ears twitched in the empty street when he heard a group of suspicious people in long coats sneak around the corner, following them. He bit the leg of Black's trousers to draw his attention.

"I've noticed them." Black whispered without looking around. Then, suddenly, eight Team Plasma grunts walked out of a building ahead, blocking the road. They turned around, but the suspicious people behind them threw off their coats and showed themselves to be Plasma grunts as well. Black's pokémon formed a protective circle around him.

"Gutentag, herr Black," said a long-haired old man with a moustache as he left the building the grunts had come out of. He wore long brown robes.

"What do you want?" Black snapped.

"How rude." the old man said, "Let me introduce myself. My name is Bronius of the Seven Sages, and I've come to welcome you to my city."

"_Your_ city?" Black scoffed, "Funny, the mayor's name didn't sound like Bronius to me. Of course, it could just be your stupid accent being hard to understand."

"Very funny. Let us get straight to business, then. You have become a thorn in Team Plasma's eyes. You... Beschädigtest the operations of Rood and Gorm. One does not trouble Team Plasma without consequences. After Gorm alerted us all about his defeat, I knew you would be coming to Castelia next, and ordered mein men to look out for you. It was probably just luck that allowed you to defeat Rood and Gorm. But perhaps not, and in that case I don't want you walking around freely."

"So you're going to kill me."

"Kill you?" Bronius seemed insulted, "do you think I'm a barbarian? I am a forgiving man, and we could use a man with your talents. Why don't you join us? You must love pokémon, don't you see they are much better off without humans forcing them to obey?"

"Oh, as if!" Octa scoffed.

"No," Black said, "you're just a sad bunch of hypocrites who want to force your ideals down everyone else's throat and I will never join you."

"Schade. I had hoped you would cooperate, but in that case, you we will have to liberate your pokémon."

"Never!"

"I don't remember asking you anything. I don't want your permission to liberate them, as I don't need it. You don't get a choice in the matter," he sent out a Gigalith, an Archeops, an Aggron, a Rhypherior, a Magcargo, and an Omastar. "I will now battle you to liberate your pokémon. If you really are special, you can probably defeat me."

The six powerful rock types charged through the thin street, creating tremors with each step. Octa made a Leaf Tornado to try to hit as many of them as possible, but it didn't faze them. Soon Boreas had to dodge huge rocks flying around, and powerful arms trying to crush him. He barely managed to get away from Archeops' piercing claws, dodged the Iron Tail of Aggron, and avoided Magcargo's attempt to incinerate him, only to find himself alone in front of the Rhypherior.

The massive beast towered above him, seeming as tall as the skyscrapers to Boreas, who didn't even reach to its knees. It brought a massive, powerful arm down, almost crushing Boreas, and immediately after he had to dodge its other heavy rock arm. Boreas thought just keeping an eye on its arms was enough, but when the Rhypherior suddenly turned around, he saw too late that there was a huge rock on the end of its tail. With a bone-crushing impact, Boreas was launched into the wall by the heavy boulder. He fell to the ground and found his consciousness, as well as quite a lot of blood, quickly escaping his body. He tried to concentrate on staying awake, but his view became unfocused, he heard some unintelligible mumblings, and sank away into darkness.


	18. Liberated

Chapter Eighteen: Liberated

The first part of Boreas' consciousness that returned to him was a severe, throbbing pain over most his body, but especially in his left legs and flank. When he opened his eyes, an unfocused pattern of blinding white and deep black assaulted his eyes, and the severe physical pain in his body was joined by a splitting headache, dizziness and nausea. His mind was as foggy as London in 1952, and felt as if there was a Frenchman living in it.

A voice said something, but to Boreas it was as intelligible as an aphasic with a severe speech impediment standing on the other side of a wall speaking Czech while enjoying a mouthful of thick yoghurt with fruity bits.

"Mmwuh?" Boreas mumbled while trying to get up, but he cursed "Mew's splanch!" when he found out that was a really bad idea as the pain in his legs increased from the sensation one might feel some seventeen hours after a car carrying two morbidly obese parents and their adorable baby daughter had driven over one's left foot to the pain one might feel if one took a particularly large, prickly cactus, dipped it into the juice of Naga Viper peppers, set it on fire, and inserted it into one's own rectum. In addition to the pain intensifying, Boreas immediately collapsed to the left, on top of his left legs, which were now under his body in unusual positions and screaming with pain like a stereotyped housewife seeing a mouse and Edward Cullen at the exact same moment. He tried to get up, but it only worsened the pain and didn't work. But then someone gripped him, put him on his other side, and moved his legs to positions were their pain was much more bearable.

"Don't move, my dear fellow," a voice spoke kindly, "you have broken both left legs, as well as several ribs. You shall only make things worse by moving."

Boreas felt a lot better now that he knew that whatever was going on, at least Octa was with him. "Octa? What the hell happened? Why do I feel like a particularly large Rhypherior smashed me into- Hang on, that's exactly what happened, isn't it?"

"Indeed. You have been unconscious for several hours, my dear fellow, and are likely feeling very poorly right now."

"Really? I hadn't noticed that myself yet, thanks for pointing it out. But the battle! What happened? Did we win?"

There was a slight pause. "I'm afraid we didn't, my dear fellow."

"What?"

"I don't know if you can see it, but we are currently in cages in what seems to be some form of pokémon gaol of Team Plasma."

Boreas' eyesight was indeed coming back, and now he could see he was in a small cage inside a white room with other cages in it. The cages were stacked up on each other in two stacks. "Then how did you get in here to help me?"

"Vines, remember."

"Oh yeah. What about the others? Is everyone alright?"

"We are all present, albeit not in excellent condition. None of us is in as poor a condition as you, though."

"What about Black?"

"We don't know his location and status. We were taken here by grunts as soon as we had lost the battle, and unfortunately we lost sight of Black and Bronius."

"Oh damn," Boreas said.

"Oh, as you so rightfully put it, damn," Octa said.

"So what happened to us being liberated?" Boreas wondered, "why are we in these cages instead of in some forest somewhere?"

Octa snorted. "Methinks Team Plasma uses the verb "to liberate" in some novel context."

Finally, Boreas' splitting headache largely cleared and the dizziness stopped, and his eyes would finally focus properly. It seemed he was in the top cage of one of the two stacks of cages, and he could only see the top cage of the other stack, which contained Octa, who was covered in several large, ugly bruises and some deep cuts. If he very cautiously moved his head, he could see the upper half of the cage under Octa, in which Toxica, two of the leaves of her head partially torn off and with one black eye and several cuts, was looking around nervously.

"'e alrigh', guv'nor?" a heavily accented voice asked.

"Who's that?" Boreas asked.

"Wotcher, name's Thomas."

"Hi, I'm Boreas."

A light, feminine voice spoke up. "And I'm February. It's nice to meet you."

"'Ear choo." Thomas whimsically bettered her.

"Yeah, it's nice to meet you two too. Is there anyone else here I don't know?"

"No guv, Febby an' I was the only tews what was 'ere in the Jimmy Nail until they tossed'choo in wiff us. 'Ear choo gots a bit of an unscheduled meetink wiff Team Plasma."

"Did you?"

"Yeah," Febby said, "Octa told us all about it."

Boreas dragged himself to the cage's lock very carefully and started messing around with it to no end. "'Tis no good, my dear fellow," Octa said, "I already tried that."

Boreas sighed frustrated. "Well, we can't stay here, we have to do something!"

"Calm down, guv," said Thomas, "I've been 'ere five days, ain't nuffink choo can do 'cept wait."

Boreas shuddered at the thought of having to remain inside the cage much longer. "Wait? But I want to get out now!"

"Calm down, my dear fellow. You'll only hurt yourself. Why don't we talk for a while to pass the time, hmm?"

"Fine," grumbled Boreas, "What do you want to talk about?"

Octa seemed to be unable to think of something for a moment. "Thomas, February, were you two stolen from the same trainer?"

"I ain't stolen from anyone, guv'nor," said Thomas, "I'm me own free pokémon, livin' in this here city by meself. Humans is incredibly wasteful, they is, an' they throws away enuff food for me to eat like a king each day. But a couple of days ago, I was just mindin' me own business when these Plasma dental flossers shows up an' captures me, takin' me 'ere. Febby showed up a day later."

"I see. What about you, February?"

"They stole me from my trainer," Febby suddenly sounded very sad, "I was in my pokéball on her belt, and they pickpocketed me."

Boreas heard sniffing sounds. "Hey," he tried to support her as best he could, "don't be sad, I'm sure she'll come rescue you. And so will Black, mark my words."

"But what if she doesn't notice I'm gone?" Febby sounded panicky, "I'm so weak and have so little use in battle, maybe she doesn't even miss me!"

"Nonsense," Boreas said, "I'm sure she misses you terribly and is trying to find you right now."

"D'you think?" Febby sounded less sad.

"Sure. And if she doesn't, she doesn't deserve you, and Black will rescue you together with the rest of us!"

"Yeah," Thomas said, "Boreas is righ', Feb. She'll come for choo, I'm sure."

"But there's so many of Team Plasma, even if she comes, she wouldn't stand a chance."

Capella spoke up. "Wars aren't won by numbers, little one. Even if they are outnumbered, they can still win by superior strategy and skill."

"Shh! Someone's coming!"

Two Plasma grunts entered the room with buckets of berries. "Right," the bigger one said, "Let's give this lot their food and get out."

They pushed some small berries into the cages. Boreas mimed the act of pickpocketing to Octa, who extended his vines to carefully look for the grunts' keys.

"So how long do we have to feed this lot any more anyway?" the smaller one asked.

"A week I guess. They usually ship them to the castle on the 25th." He was feeding Boreas right now, "Don't think this Poochyena here will be much use there, though. Sage Bronius messed it up pretty badly, and it looks weak in the first place."

Boreas growled at the man for his insult and for calling him a Zorua.

The grunt turned around, and Octa retracted his vines just in time. "Huh," the smaller grunt said, "I wonder if they'll let us keep it if it can't work."

"What's the use of a pokémon what can't work or fight?"

"It has nice fur. My wife'd love a fur coat."

"A whole coat off that runt? You might get a hat out of it."

"Heh, I guess." they left the room, leaving Boreas feeling very insulted and worried for his skin's future.

"I'm sorry, my dear fellow," said Octa, "I didn't manage to steal their keys. But if they really do intend to keep us here for a week, I shall have plenty chances to try again."

The thought of staying there for a week made Boreas shiver, but he tried to banish the thought by thinking about other things. "What's this castle they're going to take us to?"

Nobody seemed to know that. "Dunno, guv," said Thomas, "but i' doesn't sound much like liberashun to me. Course, it didn't sound much like liberation in the first place, 'cos I was a free pokémon. Blimey, what's the bloomin' use o' liberatin' me from human masters if I don' even 'ave any?"

"Yes," said Capella, "and I'm not a captured pokémon either, I'm only travelling with a human. Anyway, Boreas, we should make sure your broken bones heal properly."

"What d'you mean? Can't they do that in the pokécenter?"

"Not if it's been too long since they were fractured. Those machines can't do their work properly if scarring tissue has formed, you see, as it means your own body is repairing the damage, and if the machines would do that too it all becomes one big cross-repairing nightmare. So we should make sure the bones heal properly, or you could be cripple for the rest of your life. Or at least until you evolve."

"Okay, sure, what do I need to do?"

"We need to make sure the two halves of the broken bones are touching each other in the right way. Octa, you can reach Boreas, right? Do you have any experience with this sort of thing?"

"I'm afraid I don't."

"Then I guess I'll have to talk you through it. By the way, putting the bones in the correct positions is going to be about as painful as breaking them was in the first place, so be warned.

Boreas gulped. "Okay. So how do you know what to do with a broken bone anyway?"

"Well, when you get to be a hundred and seven years old, you learn a thing or two along the way, I guess."

"107?" exclaimed everyone else in chorus.

"Yeah, is that so strange? I know it's a bit older than most of you, but not _that_ much, is it?"

"Yes it is," Boreas said, "I'm barely half a year old, you're more than two hundred times as old as I am!"

"Wow, that's young." said Capella, "I guess it all depends on your species, other Dratinis would consider me relatively young. I could easily have nine centuries ahead of me."

"Blimey," said Thomas, "That's quite some longevi'y chore kind 'as."

Octa set Boreas' bones in place with Capella's guidance. Boreas didn't know what he found worse: the pain or the annoyance at Lucius, who was sniggering to himself and making some very annoying remarks about the situation.

–

The only way they knew it was night was the light suddenly went out and the entire room became dark. Without any light everyone fell asleep very quickly. Everyone except Boreas, that was. He lay awake with a throbbing pain in his entire left side, while his right side was uncomfortable. He felt like changing position, but Capella had told him he should try to keep the same position as much as possible, as his bones could easily shift positions without a cast. Then he found out he was not the only one awake, as he heard Toxica's voice:

"Octa? Are you awake?"

"Hmm? Yes, I believe I am."

"Well, I can't sleep, and I wanted to ask you something..."

"I shall be happy to enlighten you with the answer."

"I was wondering... What's it like to evolve?"

"It is... Well, 'tis... I say, 'tis quite difficult to describe."

"Really? But you normally have such a way with words."

"I do, don't I? Yes, I shall endeavour to describe it... It feels very odd indeed. It feels strange, but also pleasant... As if one is turned into a liquid and inserted in a different mold that one's body is changing form to fit. One can actually feel their body alter, and watch it happening from inside."

"It must feel so weird... But after you have evolved and you have turned into this awesome new form... I mean, you became so much bigger and stronger... And more handsome... And more charming... And your voice became so... Sexy. Do you think when I evolve, I'll become amazing, like you? So strong and attractive?"

There was a bit of a pause. "I'm afraid you shan't. Your evolution possesses a notoriously unpleasant odour and is not exactly aesthetically pleasing."

"Oh," said Toxica in a very disappointed voice.

Boreas had to mask his laughing as a very odd snore as something very malicious in him cheered for Octa's obliviousness.

–

The week passed incredibly slowly, and yet it was not slow enough. To just lie still in the same cage was intensely boring, but Boreas was scared of whatever would happen on the 25th. Though none of them knew exactly what would happen that day, they all had the feeling that they had to escape before then if they ever wanted to see their trainers or freedom again. Octa had tried pickpocketing the grunts that fed them every day, but it seemed they just didn't carry the keys. No-one slept on the night of 24 July, as they were desperately trying to think of a plan for the next day.

"Octa," said Boreas, "What if you just wrapped your vines around their necks and threatened to strangle them to force them to let us out?"

"I'm afraid that shan't work, my dear fellow," Octa replied, "I don't think I quite possess the strength to strangle a human, and-"

"Nonsense!" said Toxica, "you're worth a million of them!"

"Yes, well quite. Thank you. But I'm afraid 'tis only in terms of intelligence, civilisation, and decency that I'm their superior."

"And charm," Toxica interjected, "and good looks and-"

"Look," Boreas interrupted her annoyed, "can we get on with planning our escape?"

"Quite," Octa said, "as I said, I probably don't possess the strength to actually strangle them, and even if I did or could make them believe I did and thus force them to open these cages, methinks they do not have the keys to our gaol at all, so I'm afraid it would be utterly pointless."

"The way I see it, if they're going to take us somewhere, they'll either have to open these cages or carry them around. If it's the first, they'll have the keys, while if it's the second... I guess we could attack them while they're carrying us so they drop us, and then... I don't know, but it's better than cooperating. Lucius, you could spit fire at them, right?"

"Yeah, obviously. Don't be expecting no infernos, but I could probably hurt them pretty badly."

"Great, and you could do that wave-thing you did when we first met you, Capella!"

"I'm afraid not. I'm not a water-type, so I can't just create the water. I can only manipulate what's already there. And I couldn't do a Thunder Wave without paralysing myself in this cage."

"I could poison or paralyse them with my spores!" Toxica quipped.

"Great! Febby, Thomas, could either of you do something?"

"'Fraid not, guv," said Thomas, "we ain't no use tew choo unless we's out of these cages first. What'chore plan, anyway?"

"I don't have a plan, beyond improvising something to get us out of these cages. Can you think of something better?"

"No, guv, chore plan o' improvisin' sumfink tew get out an' then scarperin's the best we can do."

"I agree," said Capella, "and I think we'll all need our sleep tomorrow. Let's try to sleep the last few hours of the night so we may be alert to opportunities tomorrow."

After it had been silent for a while as everyone tried to fall asleep, Boreas heard a small voice say his name. "Boreas?"

"Yes, Febby?"

"Do you think we'll make it?"

"Of course we will," Boras lied, "I'm sure of it."

"R-really? Because I don't want to go to this castle... I just want to go back to White."

"Don't worry," said Boreas in the most encouraging tone of voice he could muster, "I promise you will get back to White."

–

AUTHOR'S NOTES: In case you were wondering what organ's name Boreas takes in vain, the splanch is the organ that allows a Mew to use any move.

I hope Thomas' lines are still intelligible, and I hope any actual cockneys reading this will forgive me for probably horribly butchering their awesome accent and slang.


	19. Rolling Rocks

Chapter Nineteen: Rolling Rocks

A few hours after they were awoken by the light turning on again, Sage Bronius and a grunt entered the room. It was the first time they had seen Bronius since they had become his captives, and he seemed to be inspecting them.

"Decent specimens, I suppose," he said, "I think they'll put in some good work. But if- Dummkopf!" he suddenly shouted at the grunt, "You put the Servine in a normal cage? It has vines, you idiot! Get it a closed off, plastic cage!"

Realising it was his last chance, Octa immediately extended his vines to Bronius and ran them through his pockets. Bronius, however, grabbed the vines with both hands and gave them a hard pull, thus smashing Octa into the cage's bars. "Next time your vines are out of your cage I'll tear them off."

Octa retracted his vines and rubbed his bruised face. Suddenly a different grunt from the one that had just left entered the room. "Sage Bronius! The ship has arrived!"

"Ah, gut! See to it that these seven are brought there as soon as the Servine is put in a plastic cage."

"I will, sage. There was a bit of trouble, by the way."

"Trouble?"

"N-nothing to worry about, sage. Just some stupid tourist with a Sinnoh accent who wanted to get on board and have us give him a tour of the city."

"You told him to go away?"

"Yeah, but he tried to sneak on board anyway, so we knocked him out and threw him off the ship."

"Gut."

"Yeah, but he was carrying something you will find interesting: some strange rock!"

The grunt presented a piece of light grey rock to Bronius, who recoiled a bit as he took it. "That's odd... Ja, this will be interesting to research when I have some time."

After examining the rock for a moment, Bronius put it in a pocket in his brown mantle and walked over to inspect Boreas. "I don't think we need to bother with taking this one to the castle, it can't work." The door opened, and Boreas could hardly believe his eyes when he saw whom entered.

Still looking at Boreas, Bronius pointed at the person whom had just entered. "You, have this Eevee put out of its misery."

"Get away from my pokémon," said Black. Bronius turned around in surprise and Black punched him in the face. Bronius stumbled back, hit his head on Boreas' cage, and fell to the ground.

All the pokémon cheered for Black as a brown-haired human female wearing a white shirt and blue shorts entered the room. "White!" Febby cheered.

Black cheerfully greeted all his pokémon and stole the keys, as well as the odd bit of rock, from the unconscious Bronius. He released them one by one, and Toxica and Octa immediately jumped into his arms, while Capella maintained a more respectable distance and Lucius just walked out of his cage without paying Black any attention. Boreas, finally, had to be carefully carried out of his cage by Black, who gladly hugged him.

"I'm so glad you guys are here!" he said, "Don't worry, Nurse War can heal you all, I'm sure."

Boreas saw a lithe, feminine Eevee with a bushy tail in White's arms and suddenly felt oddly dizzy and nervous. "You're an Eevee!" he exclaimed.

Febby looked around and saw him. "Oh! And s-so are you."

A bit of an odd silence fell between them as they both cuddled with their trainers.

"Blimey, it's nice tha' choo got reunited wiff your trainers, but shouldn't we scarper? I ffink this dental flosser 'ere's wakin' up!"

Boreas turned to talk to Thomas, but when he actually saw him, he suddenly felt very cold and a veil of crimson hatred clouded his mind.

_He was back in the forest, seeing his father's corpse and his mother about to die fighting the vicious monsters. He saw his brother collapse, his throat cut, and expected to die as the beast lifted its sharpened claw up to execute him._

"Someffink wrong, guv?" the Zangoose asked as he stared at it with the sort of stare that usually only those who have died and returned as some form of vengeful ghost to avenge their murderers manage to pull off.

"You..." Boreas hissed, his voice drenched with pure hate like a garment soaked with poison to assassinate a king, "You're a monster, you killed them..."

"What'choo talkin' 'bout, guv? I ain't killed nobody, it' chore china Thomas, remember?"

"You killed them! I'll kill you! I'LL KILL YOU!" Boreas screamed, and he tried to launch himself at the Zangoose, but a severe pain shot through him as his legs immediately gave way and he plummeted from Black's arms. Octa managed to catch him just before he hit the ground and returned him to Black's arms.

"I'LL GET YOU!" Boreas screamed like a madman, "MURDERER!"

"Blimey, i' wasn' me, wha'e'er i' was! Wha' 'appened to us bein' mates?"

"Calm down, my dear fellow, please!" Octa commanded, "Thomas did not kill your parents, he's our friend!"

Boreas came a bit closer to calmness, like Pluto coming a bit closer to the Sun during one part of its orbit. "It." Boreas seethed between clenched teeth, "Is. Not. My. Friend! It's a Zangoose, a murderer!"

"Arceus luv a Ducklett, I didn' make chore paren's kark it, guv, i' was a differen' Zangoose!"

"You're all the same!" Boreas hatefully seethed, "Your kind murdered them!"

"Please," Octa apologised, still holding Boreas, "accept my humblest apologies for this behaviour."

"No problem, guv'nor. I unnerstan' chore anger, but i' wasn' me what kill 'chore parents, mate. An' I'm sorry for wha' other Zangeese did to choo. Just lissen to me voice, an' remember tha' I'm chore china."

His logic managed to calm Boreas down a bit more. "I don't care, your kind murdered my family! You can't be my friend, you're my enemy!"

"Look guv, can I help i' that I look like the Aris wha' kille' chore parents?"

Then this little argument was interrupted as Bronius had awoken and was sending out his pokémon. "I was merciful to you, boy, and let you live, and this is how you repay me? Fine, then it's your own fault! Kill them!"

Black, White, their pokémon, and Thomas ran for their lives out of the room into a long white corridor as the six mighty rock types started pursuit. Boreas and Octa were still in Black's arms.

"My dear fellow," Octa said, "I thought you were over it."

"Yes, so did I!" Boreas snapped, "But I guess we were wrong, hmm?"

"Look, you have to realise that this is highly illogical. Thomas didn't-"

"Logic be damned! That thing is a Zangoose, and I hate it!"

Gigalith and Omastar followed them through the door, while Rhypherior and Aggron didn't bother with that formality and just bashed through the wall with a single stroke. White threw five pokéballs to unleash a Vullaby, a Rufflet, a Darumaka, a Panpour, and an Audino. They all ran in a fighting retreat, except Boreas whom was still being carried by Black as he was unable to walk for himself. The other eleven battled as they ran off, only fighting to block the enemy's attacks or slow them down.

Octa launched a Leaf Tornado at the Omastar which was shooting its sharp spikes at them, Lucius spit fire at Aggron in an attempt to slow it down, Vullaby, Rufflet, and Capella launched themselves into the air to intercept Archeops attempting to fly over the others to attack Black and White. Rhypherior fired a massive rock at Thomas, who dodged it with unbelievable agility. Boreas caught himself hoping that the Zangoose's Detect would fail.

_Don't be like that, _he thought, _even if his species turned out to be a bit of a nasty surprise, it's Thomas, I don't actually want him to die._

_Yes, I do. It's a Zangoose, how could I not want it to die? They killed my family!_

_He didn't, and I'll feel very bad if his Detect actually fails._

_No, I won't, I'll feel very good, because there will be one less of those bastards around._

They turned a corner into another long white corridor, and Aggron saved itself some time by cutting the corner through the walls and the room on the corner. It was now running in front of the other rock types, trying to kill Panpour and Octa with a single Iron Head. But Panpour was only scraped by the attack and Octa dodged it with a bizarre pirouette, launched himself into the air with his vines, and landed in Aggron's neck. In an excellent position to do so, he began draining Aggron's energy with a Mega Drain. The others overtook Aggron as it slowed down trying to get Octa off it.

The rock types were a bit too large for the small corridor together, and actually destroyed quite a bit of the corridor's walls as they pursued Black and White, leaving a trail of destruction behind. A storm of sharp gemstones wounded everyone when Gigalith used its Power Gem attack. Capella tangled with Omastar as she fled, returning its water attacks and paralysing it with electric pulses at the same time.

They tried to make obstacles for their pursuers by pulling down lamps, throwing over drinks machines and cupboards, and opening doors in passing, but there was just nothing that could even slow down the powerful rocky creatures pursuing them, as they casually smashed through any obstacle as if it was a cardboard prop in a poorly budgeted sixties sci-fi show. Occasionally grunts would show up ahead to block the way, but Black and White shoved them aside without slowing their running.

Gigalith took a break from shooting gemstones at them and instead fired a barrage of sharp stones the size of a fist that missed all of them. However, it seems they were not even aimed at them, as they floated around further down the corridor, waiting.

"Stealth Rock!" White shouted, "Go left!"

They entered a door instead of continuing down the trapped corridor and entered some kind of large mess hall. It mainly contained cheap plastic tables, and quite a lot of them too. A few out of uniform grunts who were eating dinner looked very surprised at the group of humans and pokémon running for their lives, and then looked even more surprised when the wall collapsed and five powerful rocky creatures bashed through, destroying the entire hall. Cheap plastic tables were splintered en masse as rocks were shot into them and they were brushed aside in large groups by Rhypherior's powerful rock arms. Seeing the sharp plastic splinters flying about, Boreas had an idea. "The shards!" he shouted, "use them as ammunitions, aim for their eyes!"

Vullaby made a Gust, which immediately sucked up a lot of shards, turning into a whirlwind of sharp plastic. She caught Omastar, by far the most vulnerable enemy, in it, and it came out with several of the sharp plastic spikes sticking out of its body. Archeops flew over, but was suddenly caught by vines coming from somewhere in the charging horde of rock types, and before it could respond Octa launched himself into the air by pulling on the vines, flew barely over the charging Rhypherior's horn, and landed just behind Black. He retracted his vines, whipped up a Leaf Tornado which gathered some splinters, and fired it at Omastar. In severe pain, with a lot of deep cuts and sharp spikes sticking from its soft body, the cephalopod retracted into its shell. There was no time to cheer, though, as the other four were still after them. They crossed the last part of the mess hall, jumping over a fallen table and ducking under a ray of sharp gems and entered a door leading to another corridor.

They dashed through the corridor, and by now Boreas was really starting to wish that he could walk for himself so he could make some meaningful contribution instead of just lying in Black's arms. Archeops was the first to catch up as the others started demolishing another corridor in an attempt to kill them, and it swooped over the battling pokémon, ready to grab Black in its claws, when Lucius made a large jump, landed on its back, and dug his jaws into its neck. With a screech the Archeops missed Black and struggled to get Lucius off it. Lucius suddenly shone with a blinding white light, and they left Boreas' view behind White. When he saw them again a moment later, Lucius had evolved to Houndoom and Archeops collapsed to the ground, unable to fly a creature heavier than itself around, especially with Lucius' terrifying jaws around its neck. Lucius was about to kill it by biting its throat, but changed his mind when Rhypherior came very close to crushing him and ran away instead, very fast now that his size had increased.

They were nearing the end of the corridor where a door blocked the way. Black and White kicked the door down together, and they entered what seemed like the reception room of an office building. The other side of the reception was a wall of thick glass with an unmoving revolving door in it. They ran for the revolving door immediately, but found it was closed and the glass of the walls and door was more than a decimetre thick. However, through the glass the Gym on the other side of the street was clearly visible.

"What the..." Black exclaimed, "This is Gym Street!"

"They made a hideout right in front of the Gym?" White said.

At that moment Aggron, Gigalith, and Rhypherior burst through the wall, covering the entire reception in rubble. As there was no way out, their only hope was to defeat their enemies. Rhypherior suddenly shot off a massive rock that exploded just before Black and White's feet, and the humans were knocked away, Boreas launched from Black's arms. He thankfully hit the ground with his right side, and immediately tried to see if Black was alright. He seemed hurt, but alive and busy trying to get away from the huge Rhypherior trying to crush him. The pokémon were mostly fighting Aggron and Gigalith in groups.

Boreas saw Thomas rush forward at Aggron, slashing and kicking it in powerful Close Combat, and wounded his enemy pretty badly by dislodging the armour on its underbelly and cutting into its soft flesh underneath. The Aggron screamed in pain, but in Close Combat Thomas had neglected his defence, and the Aggron smashed into him with a calamitous Head Smash. Thomas was launched through the hall, and hit the glass outer wall above Boreas head-first. He fell down on the ground before Boreas, his neck twisted in an impossible angle, and Boreas heard him exhale his final breath and saw the light leave his eyes.

"N-no." Boreas stammered.

_It's a Zangoose_. He thought, _don't feel sorry for it, it got what it deserved._

_That's rubbish! It's Thomas, and he didn't deserve this at all!_

A tear ran from Boreas' eye as he looked into his dead friend's eyes. Realising that this was hardly the time or place, he turned his thoughts to the battle, and saw how Rhypherior crushed Panpour into the ground.

"Hey, Aggron!" he shouted, bringing himself as close to a standing position as he could manage, "you killed my friend! I'll get you for that!"

Aggron looked up from his battle with Toxica, Darumaka, and Audino to give Boreas a mocking look.

"Come on here, then, and I'll kill you myself!" Boreas shouted, "Just you and me, one on one! I'll get you!"

The Aggron ran at him, ignoring his current opponents, and charged at him with a Head Smash. Boreas grinned as his plan was working, until he realised he couldn't walk properly and thus couldn't get out of the charging behemoth's way. Black ran by, just before the Aggron, picked him up by the scruff of his neck in passing, and dived out of Aggron's way. It kept going and crashed right through the thick glass wall, immediately collapsing it into a million shards.

Now that they could get out, the surviving combatants rushed outside, into the street full of shocked people, but they were quickly followed by their enemies. Then Burgh, Bianca, and a long-haired human girl rushed out of the Gym and joined the battle.

Now that they had such a massive majority, the battle seemed to be going the other way. The enemies just weren't powerful enough to battle almost thirty pokémon at once. Then Bronius and his three pokémon that had fallen behind showed up in the ravaged reception.

"Arceus in Halle des Beginns!" he cursed, getting his Xtranceiver, "Plasma, our hideout has been discovered! Initiate Operation And The Bandit!"

The building itself exhausted thick black smoke, plunging the entire Gym Street, as well as most of the rest of the city, in smoky darkness that persisted for more than an hour and allowed Team Plasma to escape them, as well as caused quite a lot of accidents.

–

A few days later Boreas found himself alone at a simple grave on a grassy knoll. He wasn't sure what you were supposed to do at a grave and just sort of looked around nervously. That didn't really make him feel better, though. For some reason he felt as if he had to say something.

"I'm sorry I hated you for being a Zangoose," _Great, now I'm talking to a grave. _"I... Shouldn't have acted like that. Your species shouldn't have mattered, and yet it did. I know you can't really hear this because you're dead," _So why am I saying it in the first place? _"but I'm sorry I acted like that in our last conversation, my friend." He looked around, "I hope you won't mind- I guess you won't, 'cause you're dead- But I hope you won't mind if I just pretend for now that my family is buried here too... They never had a grave, you see..."

He visualised their names on the grave. "Dad, Mum, I miss you... I remember the day you took me outside of the burrow for the very first time... I was so fascinated with finding out that there was so much more than just our burrow, and wanted to see it all that day, and you had to disappoint me by telling me it would take a bit longer than that..." the tears were streaming now, though he felt oddly happy at the same time, "...And then you caught me sneaking outside that night, Dad, and got very angry... But the next day, everything was good between us again...

And Eurus, remember that time when you told us all you had found a monster, and then I wanted to see it, and we ended up running through the forest all day looking for it?

Notus, remember that time when we were at the brook and you wanted to swim like the Duckletts, and the water made me all wet and miserable and we ended up being chased off by the Swanna? Odd how that seems like such a good time now, looking back.

And Zeph, remember when we scared all those Pidoves together and we felt incredibly cool for doing it? And that time when we found Nuvema and spied on the humans there and thought they would eat us?" he chuckled, "If only you could see me now. Humans are really pretty friendly... Well, most of them, that is.

I must be nuts talking to you like this, but it really made me feel better, you know. Farewell."

–

AUTHOR'S NOTES: You may be wondering where Black suddenly came from, how he met White, whom she is, and other questions. Since this story is focused on Boreas and not on Black, I didn't switch to his point of view to show that side of the story (I considered it, though), but I can tell you what happened:

After Boreas lost consciousness Bronius quickly defeated each of Black's other pokémon. When the grunts took them, Black struggled to get them back himself, so Bronius' pokémon gave him a good thrashing and left him unconscious in the street. He was found by a hobo who took him to the pokécenter, where he was quickly healed. Black decided he wanted to get his pokémon back on his own, seeing it as his duty as a trainer to them and so didn't ask for help. He went back to the street where they were taken from him, but only found that the building Team Plasma had come out of was an empty office building.

He started asking people around the city whether they had seen Team Plasma, and at some point met White, a trainer living in Castelia who had lost her Eevee, February, and asked her. White not only recognised the description, but when he mentioned that they were pokémon thieves was very interested, and they soon came to the conclusion that their pokémon had been stolen by the same group.

They tried to look for Team Plasma together, but Castelia is a big city and Plasma is good at hiding, so they were pretty unsuccessful. But when Team Plasma's ship arrived, they just happened to be looking for them at the docks, and thus saw Team Plasma and followed one of them to the backdoor to their hideout. They sneaked inside and, with the help of White's pokémon, managed to get all the way to Bronius without being seen.

As for why Bianca and Iris were in the Gym, Bianca was challenging Burgh and Iris, visiting Castelia, was the battle's judge when they were interrupted by the rather loud noise of Aggron bursting through the glass outer wall.


	20. Water and Ice

Chapter Twenty: Water and Ice

_Present_

"So did you ever find out what they meant by "the castle?" asked Aqua.

"No," said Boreas, "but from the way they talked about it, I think it's a place where they put the pokémon they claim to have liberated to work."

"Did they literally say that, or did you have to read between the lines?"

"They didn't literally say it, but they did say we would be taken to this castle and talked about whether or not we could work, and it sounded like there was a relationship between those two topics."

"I see," Aqua thought for a moment. "Well, it could be that "castle" is a place like the daycare you visited, and that you'd be taken there and expected to care for young pokémon..."

"They literally used the phrase "What use is a pokémon what can't work or fight?""

Octa interrupted him. "_Whom _can't fight."

"Yes, _I know,_" said Boreas annoyed, "But the grunt used the word "what". And later, Bronius ordered me put out of my misery because my legs were broken. Does that sound innocent to you too?"

Aqua thought for another moment. "No, I guess you're right. There is certainly something fishy going on in that branch of Team Plasma."

"That branch?" Boreas asked exasperated, "what about all the others?"

"Well, from what you're telling me it sounds like each of their sages commands a part of their forces. So perhaps Bronius is the only one who makes pokémon work for them, while the others may actually be liberating pokémon. There's a rotten leppa in every basket."

Boreas was going to answer that, but then he saw they had arrived back in Driftveil and where just mooring onto the pier. "Oh, looks like we're back."

Aqua stood up. "Well, I think I'd better be going."

"No, wait, don't you want to come with me? You could have dinner with us at the pokécenter." he pleaded.

"Nah, I have to swim all the way back upstream and it's getting late. But perhaps we can meet up again tomorrow?"

Boreas' heart and stomach both made a double somersault as he realised she had just asked him on a date. "Yeah, great! Gladly. Sure! Where d'you want to go?"

"I've got an idea, but we can only get there by swimming. Let's meet right here on the pier tomorrow."

As much as he liked having a date with Aqua, Boreas didn't want to put his very limited swimming skills to the test. "I dunno... You've seen I'm not much of a swimmer."

"All the better... Then you can hold on to me..." she whispered. Then, with a wink, she jumped overboard. Boreas looked over the moored boat's edge to watch her swim away. She was swimming under water, so he only saw an incredibly fast moving shadow swim up the river. He watched her swim away into the distance, wishing he could swim along with her. Even after she had long disappeared from sight, he kept looking at the river dreamily until the Sun set half an hour later.

–

That evening Boreas was playing chess with Octa, and losing even worse than usual. It was mainly because he kept daydreaming about Aqua. He kept running over their conversations in his head, hearing her voice like a nightingale flirt with him, saw her wink at him, and felt the kiss she had given him whilst swimming.

Octa moved his bishop, and though Boreas hadn't been paying much attention to the game and had already lost all his small pieces and a rook, he immediately saw his chance and took it with his sole remaining rook.

Then he noticed Octa was grinning smugly. "I see. Your eyes are open, you can move the pieces, but the brain is on vacation with a certain charming lady, isn't it?"

"What d'you mean?" Boreas responded.

"This." Octa took the rook with his knight, "Check."

Boreas saw that not only his king was in danger, but his queen as well. If he moved his king out of the way, the queen would be taken. Sighing, he moved his king to the only tile he could. "I see what you mean. A bishop for a rook and the queen is a very poor trade for me."

Grinning self-assuredly, Octa took the queen. "Do you think that's all you're losing here? This is checkmate, my dear fellow."

"You're right. You win.."

Of course, now the boasting began. "Obviously my strategy was superior, my dear fellow, the fork I executed just before checkmate was a thoroughly masterful move, even if it hadn't led directly to my victory, as it gave you no choice but to sacrifice your queen."

"It sure was, but I was just a bit distracted, you know."

"You see, this is why looking ahead is so important in chess. 'Tis not good enough to be able to make a good move, you have to anticipate making that move ten turns ahead."

"Alright, I was just a bit distracted. I think I'm going to go to sleep now."

"Already? Don't you want to play another round?"

"No, I want to be well-rested tomorrow."

"Alright. I'd wish you sweet dreams, but I doubt you shall need my wishes to get those after meeting your new ladyfriend."

–

After a night of pleasant dreams, Boreas awoke. Normally, he would go back to sleep pretty much instantly, but now he immediately stood up, got out from under Black's bed, and walked to the door silently, attempting not to awaken anyone.

"My dear fellow, what on Earth are you doing?" a voice said.

"What does it look like I'm doing?"

"It looks like you are sneaking away to go to your date at half past six."

"Exactly."

"Don't you think your ladyfriend might not have meant for you to encounter one another this early in the morning? She is probably still sleeping, like all civilised people do at this hour."

"That's no problem, I'll just wait for her."

"My dear fellow, we both know your patience is as capacious as an ant's bladder. And being enamoured makes one's judgement worse. Yes, you could go to the pier now and wait for hours, probably start feeling very miserable and doubtful that she'll ever show up, or you could just go back to sleep, go there in a few hours, and only have to wait for her for a short while. 'Tis your choice, my dear fellow, but I believe you know which option I would recommend."

Boreas couldn't help see the logic in that and got back under the bed. "Okay, fine. But I don't think I can sleep at all... I'm so excited!"

"Yes, I get that impression," said Octa.

"I'm in love, Octa! I'm in love, I'm in love, and how could I not be? Y'know, I suddenly understand why people write poetry now. I thought they were just being whiny and overreacting, but now I see that when you're in love, you just have to express yourself somehow. I had no idea someone could be so madly in love with another person. And I completely take back what I said about that Byron-guy a few weeks ago."

"Good. Lord Byron did not deserve your original assessment."

"I wish I could just go to her right now... It's as if every fibre in my body is magnetically pulled to her, she's so incredibly lovely... I mean, when she smiles, her black eyes light up as if there were stars in them, and her ears point up a bit, and she gets these really cute dimples in her cheeks... Oh, she's so charming, and nice, and handsome... Her eyes, have you seen her eyes?"

"I believe I may have caught a quick glimpse of them."

"And her tail... Wow, her tail... And her nose is so pretty... And she actually kissed me yesterday!"

"Did she?"

"Yeah, it was just on my cheek, but it felt as if time stopped and the entire universe was absolute bliss... If I was the kind of ice-type that's actually made of ice, I would probably have melted... Y'know, it feels as if I'm going mad, but in such a good way. I thought I had been in love before, with Febby, but now I know I was just attracted to her, that it wasn't even close to the real thing... Octa, have you ever been in love?"

Octa answered with a snore, and Boreas realised that while he felt more awake than ever before, to everyone else it was still 7 in the morning and that he probably should shut up.

–

At nine, Boreas just couldn't stand lying under the bed thinking of Aqua any more, and was pining for the real one. So he got up, ate a minimal breakfast on the pokécenter's ground floor, and left to go to the pier. To his disappointment, she wasn't there yet. He sat down on the wooden pier and started scanning the river. It wasn't long before he got up and started pacing around the nearby shore. He started worrying she would not show up, that he would never see her again. Though he knew that fear was probably ungrounded, it gripped him like the cold, slimy, dead hand of a ghost and made him very nervous and afraid. _Am I stupid?_ He wondered, _it's just very early, no need to start hyperventilating._

But he wouldn't stop being nervous and wondering if she'd ever show up. Then he became nervous about how he would look if she did show up and tried to take a look at his reflection in the water. He walked back onto the pier to look at his reflection in the water. His reflection looked back with an intelligent gleam in its eyes and rather unkempt hair for a Glaceon. He sighed and ran a paw through his hair to make it look a bit better. Just his luck that he was one of the few species of pokémon who had a different kind of fur on their heads than on the rest of their bodies, and thus had to worry about haircuts like humans. He was blushing slightly, which mixed with the blue fur on his cheeks to give it a slight hint of purple. He remembered that Aqua had said he looked cute when he blushed, and immediately his cheeks turned a much clearer and more expressive purple.

Suddenly a splash of water hit his face and a gorgeous blue face breached the water. "Hi!"

Boreas made an involuntary movement in start, lost his balance, moved his legs by reflex to regain it, moved them off the pier and fell into the water. He surfaced clumsily next to Aqua laughing. "H-hi."

"I see you fell for me." Aqua joked.

"How could I not?" Boreas said, "so, where is this place you wanted to swim to?"

"I thought you weren't so enthusiastic about swimming."

"Well," said Boreas, "I wasn't at first, but when you promised I could hold on to you, I liked the idea a lot better."

"Oh did you? Well, if you want to hold me, you'll have to catch me first!" she said with a grin as she rapidly swam a few metres away and splashed some water into his face. Boreas swam after her, but just before he reached her she dived underwater and reappeared almost instantly on Boreas' other side. He tried to grab her, but she was gone again and Boreas felt a sudden yank on his tail. He turned around only to see Aqua looking innocently at the shore. When he tried to get her, she disappeared, reappeared on his other side, and splashed some water in his face.

"Heehee, catch me if you can!" he tried to catch her, but she was gone again. "Here I am." she whispered in his ear.

He tried to catch her, but as was to be expected she was gone again. "Okay, you win! I can't catch you, you're too fast. Can you help me get to the shore? 'Cause I'm having trouble staying afloat."

"Do you really think I'd fall for the same trick twice?"

"It's no-" a wave washed over his head, and he resurfaced coughing, "trick! I need your help!" he disappeared underwater.

As he struggled underwater, he felt Aqua nudge him up to the surface and immediately used the opportunity to put his paws around her. "Gotcha."

Aqua chuckled. For a moment they just relished in the aquatic embrace. Then she said: "Yes, you did. But there's something you failed to consider: what are you going to do when I dive down to the bottom of the river?"

"Hold my breath until you resurface, I suppose."

"I can hold my breath for five hours, y'know."

"I can hold my breath for five minutes. I hope. But by all means, dive. When I run out of breath, you can give me mouth to mouth resuscitation."

Aqua brought a paw to her mouth pretending to be insulted whilst trying to stifle her laughter. "I would never! What kind of girl do you think I am?"

"I bet you would," he teased, "You would jump at an excuse to snog me."

"I would not! I'd rather let you drown."

"No, you wouldn't. Besides, what about all those stories about Vaporeons rescuing drowning people?"

"Two things:" Aqua said, stroking Boreas' left ear gently, "firstly all those stories happen at sea, while this is a river. Secondly those are the good Vaporeons. I'm a bad one," she said with a wink.

"Yes, you are," said Boreas as they moved their faces closer together. Then he was suddenly underwater, zooming through blueness.

"Pretty, isn't it?" he heard Aqua's voice, though he could barely see her.

"Bllupp," he said. Then he mouthed the words "I don't know, I can't see underwater."

Suddenly the bubbles of air he had just exhaled when he tried to talk came back and clung to his eyes. After a moment of getting used to it, he actually saw everything in brilliant detail as if he was above the surface. It was indeed pretty, but he mainly had eye for Aqua, who looked even prettier than above the surface with the wet fur clinging close to her body and the movements her tail and finned ears made to help her swim. He was about to start pretending he was suffocating so she would give him mouth to mouth resuscitation, when they resurfaced.

"Well, what did you think?" Aqua asked, her face close to his.

"Absolutely gorgeous," Boreas said, staring deep into her black eyes. "So was the view, incidentally."

Aqua chuckled. "Are you ready to go again?"

"Always," said Boreas with a suggestive smile.

They dived underwater once again, and Aqua made sure air bubbles clung around his eyes once again. The river was full of life, with many aquatic creatures and plants everywhere. They were swimming at incredibly speed, though Boreas thought he was bound to be slowing Aqua down. He hoped he was, as it would mean it would take longer to get to their destination, so he would get to hold her like this longer.

After a few more dives at incredible speed, they resurfaced once again, near a small, white beach sheltered between rocks. "Look, this is where I was taking you. Barely anyone knows its existence, so we won't be disturbed."

"Good." Boreas smiled.

"Anyway, you've clung to me enough. Let's see you swim the last bit for yourself."

Boreas pouted. "But I can't swim."

"Yes, you can." She struggled to get free from his grip, and managed to escape very quickly. He swam after her, and when he reached her found he already was on the beach. As they got onto the sand, Boreas shook himself dry.

"You know," he asked Aqua, "I have been telling you quite a lot about myself, but I still know so little about you. Like, how did you evolve to a gorgeous, foxy Vaporeon?"

"I don't know how you evolved into such a cute Glaceon either. You first."

"But I've already told you so much..."

Aqua blinked in rapid succession a few times and snuggled up to Boreas.

"Okay, fine. You're very persuasive. I evolved quite soon after we escaped from Team Plasma, actually..."


	21. Premier Insect Artist

Chapter Twenty-One: Premier Insect Artist

_Past_

Boreas tried to ignore the pain in his legs as he walked through the street, following Black to the Gym. It had been six weeks since his legs were broken, and Nurse War said they were healed as well as they ever would be. But the fact was, despite the nurse and Capella's cares, his legs hurt a lot when he walked. He tried not to let anyone notice, though, not wanting the Gym battle delayed even more than it already was. He was sick of Castelia after so many weeks there and just wanted to defeat Burgh and go somewhere else. Though he tried to hide the pain he felt with each step, it seemed he was not entirely successful.

"My dear fellow," said Octa, "do your fractures continue to ache?"

"No, not at all!" Boreas lied, "I'm just... Uh... Annoyed by the warm weather. Yeah, that's it. Bloody August, eh?"

"It so happens August has always been my favourite month of the year, actually."

"Really? Why?"

"Well, for one thing, I like the heat and the long daylight. For another, it was named after a namesake of mine."

"No, it isn't," Boreas said with annoyance, "if it were, you would be named August or the month would be named Octavianus."

"Actually, it is. August was named after a Roman named Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus, whom transformed the Roman republic to an empire through sheer cunning and charisma and became its first emperor. Then he changed his name to Augustus, which is Latin for majestic or honoured, and changed the name of the month Sextilis to August."

"So it's not really named after a namesake of you, but after someone named Augustus."

"Didn't you listen to what I said? It was named after-"

"Yes, I heard what you said, but obviously he stopped being a namesake of yours when he changed his name to Augustus."

"But that is not the point, is it? The point is he originally bore the same name that I do."

"Yes, but the month was named after him _after_ he changed his name."

Octa was going to say something, but they had arrived in Gym street. The complete carnage that the skirmish with Bronius had caused in the street had been completely cleaned up, the only trace of it was that the former Team Plasma building was now enveloped in construction scaffolding to rebuild the glass outer wall. Black paused in front of the Gym, which looked like an ordinary building, except for the large red and green sign above the door that said _"__**B**__u_**rG**H_**'S**_ g_**a**__Ll_**E**_rY__"_ in hideous purple and yellow neon letters. Black stopped and talked to his pokémon.

"We're at a type disadvantage here, as Burgh uses bug types and two of you are grass types, including Octa. That means I'll have to rely on the rest of you. Despite the disadvantage, I think we can defeat Burgh."

He started to open the Gym's door, but a voice said:

"Black, wait up!" White was running at them.

"Hi," Black turned his attention to White as Boreas nervously greeted Febby and then started staring at the hideous sign instead, "come to watch me beat Burgh?"

A mischievous smile spread on White's face. "Well, that too."

Black responded with a grin of his own. "Oh? For what else?"

"You'll see."

Yellow everywhere and a rancid, sweet stench assaulted their senses as they entered the Gym. Bizarre surreal painting hung from the honey-covered walls, and some of the walls were actually made from only the honey. Insects buzzed around. Black and his pokémon looked at it with mouths hanging open with surprise. After a few moments, they started to realise Burgh wasn't there.

"Looks like Burgh's not here. Can't blame him either, this place stinks!" Black exclaimed.

Burgh's voice sounded. "I'm here, actually. You just have to find me!"

"You have to walk through that wall of honey there," White said.

"You can't be serious."

"I am serious."

"This is what you came here to watch, didn't you?"

"Yep."

Black arched an eyebrow. "So did _you_ walk through the wall of honey when you challenged the Gym?"

White blushed. "Yes, I did. And stop imagining me drenched with honey."

Octa sniffed the air haughtily. "Walk through a wall of honey? Me? Are they completely doolally?"

"It is rather undignified," said Capella, "but it won't stick to us too badly. I would be more worried if I had fur."

"That is not the point, is it?" Octa responded, "the point is that it's disgusting, and that I shall look like fifteen types of twat when I come out on the other side. And I shall smell like the decaying corpse of a beekeeper who forgot to put on his protective suit and was stung to death inside his bees' hive. Besides, Black already indicated he does not plan to use me in this battle."

"Come on, don't be such a big girl's blouse and just walk through the wall."

"I am _not_ doing it. It doesn't befit a gentleman."

"I've got an idea," Toxica said blushing, "Octa, why don't you and I go through the honey wall first so no one sees you, and then I can lick you clean." she was blushing so deeply now that it looked as if she was about to burst an artery.

"There'll be no need for that," Boreas said gladly, "there are holes in the walls small enough for us to fit through, probably made by the bugs. Black's the only one who has to walk through the honey."

They all sighed relieved, except Toxica, who gave Boreas a foul look. After crawling through the holes, they saw Burgh painting something that seemed like a Dugtrio turned inside out flying out of the mouth of a bizarrely proportioned and partially molten Mr. Mime. They heard a blobbering sound and saw something that could most accurately be described as a honey elemental emerge from the wall of honey. It began clawing at itself and shaking honey off until it took on a vaguely anthropomorphic shape. Finally Black managed to get his face mostly honey-free.

"Burgh!" he said, stepping towards the painting artist as big blobs of honey fell from him, "I've come to challenge you. And also to tell you you're insane, what's with the honey walls?"

Burgh turned around in surprise. "Oh, hello. I didn't hear you come in. You're that guy who was running around in Pinwheel Forest with Lenora, right? The one with a colour for a name."

"Black."

"Right, that. So you've come to challenge me? How do you feel about using three pokémon each?"

"Alright, I accept!"

Burgh didn't do anything and Black just stood there rather awkwardly, dripping honey. After about a minute of nothing happening, he scraped his throat. Burgh didn't respond. After another while, Black said:

"So... Shall we get to it?"

Burgh looked at him as if he didn't know Black was there. "To what?"

"The battle?"

"Battle?"

"Yes, the Gym battle! Three vs. three, no switching out, that sort of thing!"

"Excellent idea! Go, René, bug him out!" he threw a pokéball, sending out a Whirlipede.

"Lucius, start with Ember!" Black commanded.

Lucius ran at René, spitting fire. Though the Whirlipede looked like a plump, compact, and slow creature, he immediately proved this impression wrong as he began rolling around at high speed, making Lucius' flames miss easily. He tried to steamroll over Lucius, but the canine proved himself fast as well despite his large size. They tried to hit each other for a while, both failing. Lucius managed to get the first hit in, singing his opponent badly with the flames he spit. Lucius was now aiming his flames quite a bit ahead of his opponent, anticipating where the Whirlipede would be once the flames got there., and he was managing to hit the circular centipede time and again. To prevent being hit again, René began moving very erratically, not only managing to dodge Lucius' flames, but actually managing to hit him. The centipede suddenly hit Lucius from the side, knocking him down, and immediately proceeded to roll right over him, going back and forth several times. Suddenly there was a burst of flames, the Whirlipede squeaked loudly, and it stopped rolling and fell over sideways.

Lucius got up, looking pretty bruised and with some wounds caused by the Whirlipede's spikes. "Yeah, and how did you like that? Get me another opponent now!"

Burgh returned René to his pokéball and sent out the Dwebble whom had lost her shell in the battle with Gorm, now with a brand new shell. "Snick, my switch was turned on! Go, Max!"

Boreas was just left speechless by Burgh. "...I don't even want to know what's going on with your 'switch'..."

The Dwebble immediately began proving her worth as a rock type by firing parts of her rocky shell at Lucius. The Houndoom was hit by several of them, but retaliated by spitting flames at Max. The Dwebble retreated into her shell for protection and shot more rocks at Lucius. Lucius ran at the withdrawn Dwebble and grabbed her shell in his jaws, lifting the entire smaller pokémon up. Boreas saw him strain to bite through it.

A dampened laugh came from inside the shell. "Go on, break your teeth on my shell if you like!"

Lucius stopped trying to crush the shell in his jaws and instead breathed fire straight into the shell's opening. He threw the shell away, and Burgh returned Max to her pokéball. Lucius howled victoriously.

"Good job!" Boreas cheered, "You're on fire!"

"Don't encourage him, my dear fellow," said Octa.

"Oh, bugger! Could it be time to bug out of here?" Burgh asked, throwing his third pokéball, "No, no, I refuse to be squashed!"

Salvador the Leavanny appeared from the pokéball. "Ha!" Lucius barked, "a grass type _and_ a bug type in one, this is my lucky day! I'll toast you for appeti- AARGH!"

With movement as fast as a lightning bolt, Salvador had rushed forwards and given Lucius two deep, long cuts with his scissors. Lucius tried to retaliate, but Salvador kept giving him more cuts, not giving him a moment to respond, before he collapsed with a patchwork of red cutmarks over his body.

"Okay Capella, it's your turn!"

"Leave it to me," said Capella. She slithered into the battlefield and nets of electricity were launched from the jewel on her head in an attempt to slow Salvador down by paralysing him. But the Leavanny jumped aside with startling agility to dodge the Thunder Waves. Capella kept trying, but because of his quick movements she couldn't hit him. Then Salvador jumped forward and started cutting Capella, but unlike Lucius she was prepared for it and managed to break the rapid slashes by Slamming Salvador with her long body, hitting him like a whip. The Leavanny was knocked away, lost his balance and fell on his bum, and Capella reacted immediately with another Thunder Wave to paralyse him. It nearly hit him in his helpless condition, but again he was just too quick and was only scraped by the electric web. Giving Capella another X-Scissor in passing, Salvador got out of range of her Slam and began firing sharpened Razor Leaves at the draconic pokémon. Though the leaves didn't seem to do too much damage, there was little Capella could do about it. Salvador was just too quick, especially at a distance. The leaves were leaves lots of little cuts to go with the big cuts made by the earlier attacks when Black realised there was nothing Capella could do and forfeited. "Capella, switch out for Boreas."

Boreas didn't feel too good about going up against Salvador with his pained legs, but he stepped forward, clenching his teeth at every step. He was about to start doing something when all of a sudden Salvador was in front of him and there were two long cuts in his skin that hurt like extremely long papercuts. Though the cuts were not very deep, this being a friendly battle, they still hurt like blazes.

Boreas didn't give Salvador a chance to start cutting at him like he did with Lucius and immediately jumped into him with a Quick Attack, knocking the Leavanny back. He sunk his teeth into an arm, but was immediately thrown off and received a few more slashes that, combined with his poorly healed legs, were rapidly weakening him. He realised he needed to think of something very fast if he was going to win at all, and ran for the wall to buy some time. He got a nasty cut on his tail as he crawled into one of the holes to the other side. As he tried to think of something, Salvador began cutting big slabs of honey out of the wall to get to him. As actually getting out of the other side of the hole would probably be considered a forfeit, Boreas had no choice but to go out the same way he came in. He waited a moment until Salvador had slashed, then ran out, just before the slash of his other scissor, Tackling the Leavanny and than ran off as fast as he could, which was not very fast courtesy of his legs. He didn't have a plan yet, but was mainly trying not to get cut up now. He ran back, ran past Black, who looked very nervous and was looking in his backpack for some chewing gum. Salvador caught up with Boreas as he was running past Black, and launched himself at the Eevee at full speed, but Boreas flattened himself to the ground and made a sudden turn despite his legs protesting. Salvador missed him, and with a tearing sound he cut Black's backpack open instead. A rain of berries, maps, papers, and other things showered Boreas. Among the other things, he caught a glimpse of the piece of light grey rock Black had stolen from Bronius about to hit him on the head, and before he could react, it hit him. He shuddered, feeling it was icy cold to touch.

Suddenly the icy coldness of the rock melted through his skin and filled his entire body. For one second it felt unbearably cold, then he experienced the tactile equivalent of looking at a picture of two silhouetted faces and suddenly seeing it as a picture of a white candlestick, and felt very comfortable with the cold instead. In the surprise at the cold moving into his body, he hadn't even noticed yet that his body was shining a bright, white light. He was filled with a deliciously icy feeling and a feeling of power as he was growing with amazing speed. His brown fur was rapidly turning an icy light-blue, and hit tail grew longer, more pointed, and less bushy. His legs increased in size, making him feel like someone standing on stilts.

As the frigid, but pleasant sensation filled him, he realised two things: the tourist Team Plasma had stolen the chip of icy rock from must have broken it off the Ice Rock of Snowpoint City, and also that he wanted to be a Glaceon. Being a Glaceon didn't just seem cool, but now that he was rapidly turning into one he felt he would love to spend the rest of his life as one. His collar was retracting, and instead longer dark blue hair was sprouting on his head in a haircut formed of three diamonds of hair, while two strands of it grew very long. The light finally subsided, and Boreas was reborn as a Glaceon.

Everything around him suddenly looked tiny, and despite the cold feeling inside him, the air around him seemed to have been heated quite a lot. The pain from the wounds he had received and from his poorly healed legs was completely gone. He drew his first breath with his evolved body, and felt hot air enter his lungs and frigid air leave them.

"Splendid, my dear fellow!" Octa cheered.

"Wow, you evolved!" Black said, "Get him with... Let's try Icy Wind!"

"Icy Wind?" Boreas mocked, noticing his voice's altered sound, "I can do better than that! I'll use Blizzard!"

Salvador had watched the evolution patiently, but now that the battle had recommenced, he ran at Boreas to X-Scissor him again. Boreas felt all kinds of powers inside him he never had before. He tried making the air around him colder, and immediately it was as if coldness rushed from nowhere, using his body as a conduit, and chilled the air around him. Then he made a Blizzard by doing the same, but this time really putting effort into making as much cold as he could. Frigid, howling, ferocious cold blasted into his body and then into the air around him, immediately freezing all the moisture in the air around him and making a Blizzard so cold even Boreas found it painful. He tried to stop more cold from coming in and tried to command the Blizzard to move to his opponent, but neither of these things happened. Instead icy waves of cold kept flooding through Boreas and fincreased the severe Blizzard.

Boreas felt incredibly cold, and began to panic as he realised he couldn't stop the cold rushing into the world through his body. Though he couldn't see more than a metre ahead in the howling Blizzard furiously raging around him, he heard the creaking of the freezing honey walls, the splintering of the Gym's windows, and the screams of agony as the bitter cold hit everyone else in the room. By now, droplets were forming out of nowhere as the air was beginning to condense. Then Boreas' eyes froze over painfully, making his visibility even lower. He tried desperately to stop the out-of-control Blizzard, but it was far too powerful for him. He was in agony, every part of his body rapidly freezing in temperatures usually unseen between here and Saturn. An idea came to him, and he immediately stopped trying to stop the cold, instead he tried to create even more and send it off onto the world with as much force as he could muster.

His set-up worked: instead of remaining close to him, the cold now had a lot of energy and blasted away into the world, making the Blizzard expand hugely, far beyond the Gym, and in doing so it became so diffuse that it became little more than a cool breeze after unleashing snow and ice on the streets near the Gym. Now that the Gym was approaching terran temperatures again, Boreas found it much easier to stop more cold from coming in and stopped the Blizzard. Then he collapsed with effort and the cold. He soon felt a gentle hand helping him up.

"Are you alright, my dear fellow?"

"Yes, I think so." Boreas said, rubbing his eyes to thaw them, "I just got a bit overconfident and let it get out of control. What about you all?"

"We are fine. Black returned us to our pokéballs immediately to protect us. So did Burgh. The humans don't look too good, though."

"S-s-s-s-sorry." Black stammered at Burgh. His lips were blue and he was shivering all over. The honey still hanging onto him had frozen into hard yellow crusts which were shattering and falling off as he moved.

Burgh began laughing, which made some icicles fall from his hair. "Oh b-b-b-b-b-bugger! I lost, b-b-b-b-but what a cool way to w-w-win!"

"W-w-win?" Black asked stupefied. The pools of liquid air lying on the ground had almost completely boiled away by now.

"I returned Sa-Sa-Salvador t-to his pokéball, didn't I? That's a forfeit, isn't it? But losing to you doesn't bug me because your insectibly- I mean incredibly- strong! Here, take this Insect Badge!"

–

That evening Boreas stepped in front of the pokécenter's mirror to get a good look at himself. He saw a Glaceon in the mirror, and looked behind him to see if there was one standing there before he realised he was the Glaceon. It was bizarre to see the Glaceon copy his every move exactly. It was going to take some getting used to this new form. He could recognise his own face in the Glaceon's after a while, but it took some effort. He was also still not used to feeling like a giant. He had grown by almost a factor three, and everything suddenly looked tiny.

He gave the mirror a long look. He did look pretty cool and elegant now. He looked at the hair on his head and wondered if it would stay in the haircut it was currently in or if he would have to take effort to keep it like that himself. He ran a paw through his hair to test it, and already his haircut was coming undone. That got him to wonder about the long strands of hair that hung from his head almost to the ground. He had nearly tripped over the things twice already. The hair in those things seemed to vastly prefer staying together, and separating hair from it was pretty hard, and even then it seemed to automatically reattach itself to the long hair thingie. Boreas wondered if the hair would grow back if he cut it off. He was really going to have to find a word for the hair thingies. Fringes or bangs just didn't seem to fit. Headtails sounded like the most appropriate word for them.

–

AUTHOR'S NOTES: When I wrote the early chapters of the flashback, I found it pretty annoying that Boreas, whom I thought of as a Glaceon, was still an Eevee, and was hoping I would quickly get to the part where he evolves. But by now, I think of him mainly as an Eevee, and find it about as weird as he does to think of him as a Glaceon. It's funny how these things go. At least this fic can finally start living up to its name now that it actually stars a Glaceon instead of an Eevee.

FEEDBACK: Jakayrta: Q: One of my complaints is that the phonetic accent you used for the Cockney Zangoose made his lines nearly impossible to read.

A: Yeah, I was worrying about that. I probably shouldn't transcribe accents as much as that.

Q: Finally how the characters swear by various body parts etc. of the Legendaries makes me laugh when I really shouldn't. It is fine to use them in comedic situations but in serious situations, I think that "conventional" swears should be used. If you don't want to use "conventional" swears, using the name of the Legendaries in vain works too, just don't add a body part or whatever to it.

A: You probably have a good point there. I'll try to keep the funny swears out of serious situations in the future.

Q: What do diapers and Dialga have to do with each other?

A: No idea, but they alliterate and I found the implication that Dialga wears diapers rather amusing. And you're completely right about this being a situation where I shouldn't use funny swears.

Thanks for the feedback!


	22. 8 of 7

Part Four: City of Light

Chapter Twenty-Two: 8/7

_Present_

"Talk about a surprise," said Aqua.

"Heh," Boreas chuckled, "you're right. One moment I was an Eevee, not expecting to evolve yet for a while, the next I suddenly was a Glaceon, and the moment after that I nearly froze Black, Burgh, and myself to death."

They were lying on their backs on the beach, enjoying the moderate heat the winter Sun provided. Boreas couldn't resist occasionally throwing a quick glance at Aqua's belly button. "I guess it's my turn to talk now," said Aqua.

Boreas shifted positions to lie closer to her. "I guess it is."

"Well, first of all, I take it you know how an Eevee evolves to a Vaporeon?"

"By Water Stone, right?"

Aqua started laughing. "You really haven't spent much time with your own species, have you?"

Boreas felt ashamed and a bit insulted. "No, I haven't, but Eevees do evolve to Vaporeon by Water Stone, I'm sure of it."

"That's the answer a human would give, and it's not entirely wrong." Suddenly she looked troubled, "I hope someone _did_ tell you about the Pidoves and the Combees?"

Boreas blushed like mad and looked away. "Y-yeah."

"Oh, good, just checking. Now, I suppose I'll have to tell you how Eevees normally evolve. Usually our evolution is based partially on our personality and partially on adaptation to the area we live in. An Eevee living in a forest will usually evolve into a Leafeon and an Eevee with a fiery temper will often evolve to a Flareon. Since an Eevee who is with humans doesn't live in nature, they usually don't evolve by themselves when they are with a trainer, unless it's to Umbreon or Espeon, because we don't interact with nature enough. But items like a Water Stone or an Ice Rock contain a lot of energy that is similar to that found in a natural habitat but much more powerful, enough to induce an Eevee to evolve in an instant."

"I didn't know that."

"It's no problem," said Aqua sweetly, running a paw through his hair, "when you have spent so little time amongst your fellow Eevees, I guess it's only natural that you know little about them."

Boreas gently rested the back of his head on Aqua's soft, blue stomach. "Now tell me how you evolved into such a comfortable pillow."

Aqua giggled and pretended to be insulted. "Did you just call me fat?"

"I would never! I'm just saying you're a very comfortable pillow. Nice and soft and warm."

"If I actually was fat, I would smother you right now."

"Well, you're welcome to try anyway."

Aqua seemed to consider it for a moment. "Perhaps later. I'll answer your question first. Evolution was a surprise to me too, though not nearly as much as it was to you. Most of my family consists of Vaporeons, you see, as we lived near the river, and so we usually spend most of our time in or near the water. Occasionally someone evolves into something else because they don't like the water or have a strong personality that leads them to another evolution, but usually we become Vaporeons. I never doubted I would become one as I already was a brilliant swimmer when I was still an Eevee, and I would often swim and practically lived off fish alone."

"And you also have a personality that befits a Vaporeon," Boreas added, "very elegant and lovely and charming. But what happened on the day you evolved?"

"I was a bit older than you when you evolved. I was about a year old, so pretty much an adult. I had swum down the river pretty far from my family's burrow to meet my bo- to go catch some fish, when a pair of hunters saw me and-"

"Hunters?"

"You know, humans who hunt pokémon."

Boreas wasn't sure he understood. "Hunt them for what? To catch them and train them? For the pokédex?"

"No, to kill them."

Boreas couldn't believe what he was hearing. "What? Kill pokémon? That can't be true, surely they're just trying to catch them to train them or to sell-"

"They killed my sister, my brother, my grandmother, several cousins, and a friend."

"Oh. I'm sorry-"

"Don't be, it's not your fault."

"But... Why? Why would they do that?"

"In our case it's either because of our fur or-"

"Our fur?" Boreas spat, "That's disgusting! What kind of monster would want to wear another creature's skin?"

"Or," Aqua continued, "for fun."

Boreas was revolted. "_Fun_? That's even worse! These people consider murdering a living creature fun?"

"Yes, they call it a sport."

"But that's..." Boreas searched to find the right word for it, and eventually settled on "...Barbaric."

"It certainly is. But that doesn't stop them, I can assure you. But as I was saying, a pair of them saw me while I was fishing..."

–

_Past_

Aqua swam through the clear river, looking for Lothario with her head just above the surface. Though they had agreed to meet here, she didn't see him, but knew he was somewhere as she smelt his odour on the water's surface. She wondered if he was hiding and called out sweetly: "Lothario? I'm here..."

He didn't respond, but he had to be hiding nearby from the strength of his odour. She took a look under water, but couldn't see anything that looked like an Eevee. She grinned. "I know you're hiding, so there's no point in trying to startle me."

Something rustled in the thick shrubbery on the water's edge. "Alright, then I'll come find you!"

She began by looking in places she knew he wasn't hiding to make him think she didn't know where he was. She searched at a small group of rocks, then between the reed. Then she dived underwater and rapidly swam to the shrubery where she knew he was hiding. She jumped out of the water and ran into the shrubs. "Ready or not, here I come!"

She was expecting to see Lothario's surprised face as she ran into the shrubbery, but instead she saw something horrifying: a Machop was handing Lothario's limp, bleeding body to two large humans carrying rifles. She cried in fury and charged the Machop, knocking it over in surprise, and she tried to reawaken Lothario as the humans exchanged surprised remarks. Lothario was no longer breathing and had a bloody hole all the way through his chest. Tears of rage filled her eyes as she looked up to those responsible, and looked right into two gun barrels aimed for her head.

Two deafening bangs were followed by a vicious, searing pain in her tail and her right hind leg, as she jumped away immediately, but not quite fast enough. She limped back to the water with all the speed she could muster, fighting tears of rage and pain. She dived into the water a moment before she was grabbed by the Machop, and tried to swim away as fast as she could. But she found that with only three legs to her use, she was much slower than she normally was, and her tail was providing her much less speed than it usually would. She looked around to see why, and gagged when she saw the top two-third had been shot off.

A shot scraped her head, leaving a painful path of burnt skin so she dived underwater to avoid the shots. She tried to swim further, but could see the humans on the shore walking along with her, rifles aimed. The water around her was slowly turning red while she ran out of breath rapidly. She was determined though not to go back to the surface. She refused to give them the pleasure of killing her, preferring vastly to drown. After several minutes her vision began fading, first going black and then white, so she closed her eyes. She realised drowning wasn't so bad after all. After the initial unpleasantness of running out of breath, it felt a lot like falling asleep. Though she had always liked the water and the river, the water had never felt as soft on her skin, nor had she ever felt as if the river was a friendly, living creature before. She didn't even feel the pain in her leg and tail any more. She floated underwater for several minutes, expecting her breathing reflex to kick in at any moment making her die of inhaling water, before she realised something very strange was going on: she had been under water for at least seven minutes, and had spent most of that time thinking she was about to die.

She opened her eyes, and to her surprise her vision had stopped going either black or white, and was back to normal. Much better than normal, actually, considering she was under water and should actually be seeing everything vague and unfocused, but instead she saw everything perfectly clear, much clearer even than she normally would above the surface. She went to rub her eyes in amazement and recoiled when she saw her paws had turned blue. A quick look at her body showed the rest of her had done the same, and that her tail was back, much larger and more powerful than it had been before. With a sense of euphoria she realised she had evolved to a Vaporeon. She swam a bit and was startled at the speed she could effortlessly make. For a moment she was overjoyed, but then she rememberer how Lothario had just been murdered, and a grim determination sunk in.

She looked at the surface and saw the two humans and their Machop putting their rifles away and walking off, apparently convinced she had either drowned or escaped. But Aqua wasn't going to let them get away. She tried to make a wave to practise. At first she failed, but then it was almost as if she melted into the water, becoming one with it, and when she tried to make the wave again, this time doing it as if the water was a part of her body, a minor wave formed. The wave calmly washed over the feet of one of the humans, leading him to curse and the other to laugh. Then Aqua, still feeling as if the river was a part of her in a bizarre way, summoned all her rage and hatred and put it into a gargantuan wave. The river responded furiously, foaming and waving like the sea during a storm, and a massive wave of fury bashed on the shore, washing the humans and their Machop away in a single wave. The river returned to its bed, taking the horrid creatures with it. Aqua could feel them swimming around pathetically and swam back to the surface and closer to them to make sure they knew why this was happening before she drowned them. The look in their panicked faces as they saw her almost moved her to pity them, but then she saw Lothario's corpse floating around. Her entire being filled with hate and disgust for the humans, she extended her will into the water and pulled them under, creating a powerful downward current that made it impossible for the murderers to stay at the surface as they were sucked to their grave on the river's bottom.

–

_Present_

"...After one of them had drowned, though, I felt pretty guilty about killing them, so I let the other one and the Machop go. But after that, I realised they would be looking for me, prepared for taking on a Vaporeon with electric weapons or harpoons, so after a visit to say goodbye to my family and warn them about the hunters, I swam down the river for about a week before I found a nice burrow on the riverside, not too far from here," she concluded.

Boreas felt as if he should be feeling a lot sadder after that story than he was, but it was hard to feel anything but delight as Aqua was stroking his hair while he lay on her stomach. "I'm so sorry."

"Look, don't be. Don't pity me, after all I don't pity you either, even though you've lost your family entirely. There just doesn't seem a need for it, as you sound like you cope with it very well and have a fun life now. The same has happened for me. I'll admit I was very sad about Lo- about having to leave my family like that and very lonely at first, but it's been six months, and it's not as if I can never see them again either, I occasionally swim upriver." She chuckled and stopped stroking through his hair. "There, you're all done."

"With what?"

Stifling her laughter, she said, "Why don't you take a look at your reflection?"

Reluctantly Boreas got up from his extremely comfortable position to take a look at his reflection in the water. An androgynous-looking Glaceon with braided hair and girlish pigtails looked back. Aqua couldn't hold in her laughter any more and burst into roaring laughter as Boreas ashamedly undid the pigtails.

"Aww, you looked lovely," Aqua laughed, "have you ever been mistaken for a girl?"

"No, have you?" Boreas responded, "How did you do that without opposable thumbs anyway?"

Aqua winked. "It's a secret. Now, why don't you come back here and tell me more?"

Boreas obliged to the first part, sitting down in such a way that as much of his side as possible was touching Aqua. "Tell you more about what? I've already told you how I evolved, and I don't have much more compelling evidence against Team Plasma."

"Just continue your story. I like it, and you have an attractive voice."

"I do?"

"Yeah, you should try singing sometime."

"I did, actually, at the pokémon musical in Nimbasa."

"Well, then start with telling me about that, and we'll see where it goes from there."

"Okay. I'll start by telling you about the other things that happened in Nimbasa, as you'll find some of it very interesting. The day after the Gym battle and my evolution we set out for Nimbasa. Unfortunately Route 4 is almost entirely a desert, and I'm an ice type, so that didn't work out too well."

"I wish I'd been there. I could've at least kept you wet."

"As tempting as that sounds, that desert would've been hotter than the Sun's surface with you there as well. As it was, it was far too warm there for me, so Black returned me to my pokéball for the journey. Which was, in fact, the very first time I'd ever been in there."

Aqua's ears raised curiously. "What's it like?"

"It's..." Boreas searched for the proper adjective. "Bizarre. Surreal. You're essentially turned into pure energy. You're only semi-conscious, it's like a sort of state between being awake and sleeping, like a dream. Or like being really, really pissed. You're in a sort of dream world, where your thoughts don't seem to be your own and they seem to be all around you, like in a dream. There's no up, down, left, right, ahead or back, and yet every direction is all of those things at the same time."

"Oh, that clears it up," Aqua drolly said.

"I can't really describe it otherwise. You don't really have any senses in there, as they have all been turned into energy along with you, and yet a part of your mind is aware of what's going on outside, and you can see, hear, and touch your thoughts that are all around you, a bit like in a dream. In my case, my awareness of the outside world was usually nothing interspersed with an occasional battle."

Aqua seemed lost in thought. "Doesn't this worry you, though: when you are turned into energy when you get put in a pokéball, you're essentially destroyed. The exact composition of your body is stored, obviously, but I wonder if you don't actually die when you are put in a pokéball. Then, when you're released, the pokéball uses the stored information to build another you, and since its brain is the same, so are the memories, so you never know, but essentially the original you was killed when he got inside the pokéball and the Boreas I'm talking to now didn't come into existence until the moment he was released from his pokéball, not realising he had just been born because he had all the memories of the original Boreas."

"Yes, I have thought of that. And there's unfortunately absolutely no way to prove or disprove it."

"It's scary though, innit? Especially the thought that you would never know. If you do actually die, it would happen too fast for you to realise what happened and you'd be gone before you knew the answer, and if you don't die you can never be sure you didn't." She shuddered.

Boreas was feeling pretty spooked now as well, so he cautiously draped a paw around Aqua's shoulder to see if she would object and to reassure both of them. She responded by leaning closer to him. "I know, it's a scary thought. But essentially it's a bit of a form of paranoia to assume the pokéballs kill you when you enter them and you come out as a copy. And I can hardly go through life assuming I was born on 10 September either and that I'm a copy of the original me, whom died not even eight months after he was born because he was put inside a pokéball."

"I guess you're right. But it's still a pretty disturbing thought."

"It certainly is. I'm not planning to be put into another pokéball any time soon either. But let's move on from disturbing thoughts."

"Great idea. It's chilling me to the bone. Which brings to mind another question: how come you're so pleasantly warm? I would've thought a Glaceon would be icy cold to touch."

"You mean like this?" Boreas lowered his body temperature below zero for a moment.

"Eep!" Aqua yelped before Boreas restored his body temperature to normal so she wouldn't move away from him.

"We can control our body temperature, and can channel it to use in various ways, as most of our moves are based on it. But if I'm not doing that, I am still a warm-blooded mammal like you, so then my body is warm too."

"Well, don't do that again, okay? I don't like to feel as if I'm snuggling with a snowman. I like you better warm. So continue telling me, skipping the creepy metaphysical questions that pokéballs raise."

"Okay. Black let my out of my pokéball when we were approaching Nimbasa and the climate was getting less harsh..."

–

AUTHOR'S NOTES: The problem with the pokéballs raised in this chapter always worried me about the transporters in Star Trek. And a while ago, I realised that same problem also haunts the pokémon world due to the pokéballs.


	23. The Shining Beauty

Chapter Twenty-Three: The Shining Beauty

_Past_

Though they arrived at the Nimbasa pokécenter at noon, Black and his pokémon were more exhausted than Kublai Khan was the day he jogged from the one side of his empire to the other. They all collapsed on various soft places as soon as they entered their room in the pokécenter, falling asleep within seconds. They woke up around 22:00, had breakfast in the pokécenter, and then decided to explore the city since they couldn't go to sleep again anyway.

Outside it was as if Nimbasa City considered the fact that the Sun had set a personal insult and pretended nothing had happened. The entire city was lighted by millions of lights everywhere, and it seemed everyone was still awake and going about their business. In fact the only difference between night and day seemed to be that the light came from a single direction at day, while it came from everywhere at night, and that the sky was light-blue at day but dark-blue at night. Not a single star was visible, and even the Moon seemed feeble and unimpressive compared to the city's own light.

The walked through the busy, heavily enlightened streets. It was no wonder no one went to bed, as there was a lot to do. There were amusement parks, sporting events, something called "Battle Subway", loads and loads of shops, and much more.

"Heeey, Black!" someone shouted from behind.

"For crying out loud, woman, don't scream like that, you're standing right next to me!"

Black turned around greeting them. "Hey, Bianca. Hey, Cheren. I didn't expect to see you two here, I'd have thought you'd be in Driftveil by now."

Cheren looked embarrassed. "Yeah, we... uh... Decided to wait for you. I didn't want to be _too_ far ahead of my rival."

Bianca giggled. "No, we didn't, silly. We're still here because we lost to the Gym Leader."

Cheren seemed even more embarrassed and annoyed. "Well, yeah. She's sort of right about that. Bianca lost to Elesa, and then I tried to show her how it's done, but unfortunately I'm suffering from gastritis and had a heavy attack during the battle, so I had no choice but to forfeit."

"You don't have gastritis, silly," Bianca said sweetly, "you just can't handle roller coasters."

"No, it's gastritis, don't be ridiculous."

Bianca turned to Black. "He turned all green and white the moment the coaster launched, and was vomiting over the side before the first pokémon had fainted."

Black laughed along with Bianca. "Hey, it's okay, Cheren. That's fairly common. What's this about a roller coaster anyway?"

"Oh, didn't you know yet?" Bianca exclaimed, "Elesa's gym is a really cool roller coaster in the amusement park! You battle her in a large, open carriage, and while you battle the roller coaster goes up, and down, and turns, and even makes loops!" Cheren was rapidly going white while she described the roller coaster. "You can't even hear the _description _of the coaster without going queasy?"

"I can handle the description, it's no problem," Cheren said panicky, "describe it all you want. I'm just having another attack of gastritis!"

"And I told you: you don't have gastritis, silly, you're just afraid of roller coasters."

"I am not. And stop calling me silly. I am neither silly nor your boyfriend."

"Yes, you are," Bianca said before adding with a blush: "silly, I mean."

"I am not! And besides, it's rude to make fun of someone's disease."

"What disease? Being a nervous Nellie?"

Black interrupted Cheren before he could respond to quell the argument. "Where is the Gym, then? I'd love to challenge it tomorrow."

"You probably don't have to wait that long!" Bianca exclaimed, "almost everything in this city is open day and night, including the Gym!"

"Great, I'll challenge it right now if you show me where it is."

"Uh," Cheren nervously said, "wouldn't you rather challenge tomorrow? You and your pokémon must be tired after a long day, you'll be much better rested tomorrow."

"No thanks, we've slept all afternoon."

"So you're already adapting to this city?"

"No, we were just really tired after walking through the desert."

"It's okay, Cheren," Bianca said, sticking her tongue out at him, "you don't have to come if you're scared."

"I'm not scared! Lugia's liver, woman, I just suffer from gastritis."

"Suuuuure."

"Look," Black said tiredly, "it's nice to see you two so much in love with each other, but can it please take another form than this constant arguing?"

"Are you insane?" Cheren protested, "I, in love with her?"

"Yuck!" Bianca exclaimed.

But after some more protestations, they stopped arguing and just showed Black to the Gym. The Gym was a flashy purple building covered in neon lights in the middle of an amusement park.

"Oh hey, a puppet theatre!" Cheren exclaimed in a forced voice, "I love those. Black, do you mind if I don't cheer you on?"

"Sure, have fun."

Bianca looked like she was going to tease Cheren, but remembered what Black had said about their arguing and kept quiet. At least until Cheren was out of earshot. "Hehe, Cheren gets sick on roller coasters. Funny, innit?"

"If you say so," Black said, "personally I found it funny the first time I heard it, but I've kind of moved on from this joke."

"Well, okay, but what's so funny isn't that he's sick on the roller coaster in itself, but that he gets so embarrassed about it and tries to cover it up with obvious lies and stuff. I mean, if he just said he got sick on the roller coaster, I'd try to support him and help him get over it and all, but when he acts like this... I just can't help teasing him... Hey, about what you said earlier, that was a joke, right? You don't really think I'm in love with Cheren, right?"

"Are you?"

"No! Obviously not! I mean, maybe you were right about him, maybe _he_'s in love with _me_... D'you think he's in love with me?"

"I wouldn't know, I just said that to get you two to shut up. Let's go to the Gym now."

Black talked to his pokémon as they walked the final bit. "Three of you are at a type advantage to the Gym leader's electric types. Boreas and Lucius have recently evolved and are pretty powerful now. But that doesn't mean we should assume we're just going to win. We shouldn't underestimate Elesa, she didn't become Gym Leader for no reason."

From the inside, the Gym was a massive hall filled mostly with a roller coaster track. The roller coaster tracks lighted up with purple lights, and rested on a black platform that ran the entire length of the roller coaster, except for the loops, and was about fifty centimetres on each side of the tracks. Near the door there was a large tiled blue and black platform where they were currently standing on. They were alone except for a tall, thin woman in yellow who was wearing enormous headphones that were leaking very loud and fast music. She was messing with the interior of some machine that was sparking with electricity at every touch. Bianca walked over to her and tapped her on the shoulder to get her attention.

"Oh, hey, Bianca!" she spoke terribly fast, "good to see you again, I thought you'd die laughing after your friend's challenge failed with him getting sick and all that, have you come to challenge me? I hope you have, you really showed potential during our last battle."

"..." Bianca said.

Elesa had paused for just long enough for Bianca to begin talking before she resumed the flow of five words per second. "Speaking of potential, you really shouldn't surprise me when I'm repairing the machines, before you know it I could've startled and been shocked, and then my hair would stand upright like a Jolteon's, I imagine my designer might like my hair standing upright from that, maybe she would even design me a Jolteon-based dress, but I wouldn't, especially because it would obviously hurt, speaking of, she's designing a dress based on a Weavile, not the sort of pokémon they usually base dresses on, which is cool, right, because that means it'll really look special, instead of like a generic dress, hey, I see you've brought a new friend, what's his name?"

"Black, and-"

"Oh, Black, what an unusual name, what's it's origin? Does it come from the English word black or is it based on a foreign word that just sounds like it but is unrelated? Or maybe it's based on a foreign word for black which has been translated into English, or is it just short for something, like Blackburn or Blakeley or Blagorod or Blandford?"

"It's-"

"And where are you from, are you from Nuvema too like Bianca here? I've never actually been there myself, is it a nice place for a vacation? In spring I mean, I can't go on vacation in summer because there's too much work to do in summer and my designers prefer if I don't catch too much of a tan anyway, it wouldn't really fit with my image, see? So why are you here, Black, did you perhaps come to challenge me, instead of Bianca? That would be interesting too, I always enjoy battling new people!"

"..." Black said.

"Oh, great, let me formally introduce myself then, my name is Elesa and I'm Nimbasa City's Gym Leader and I also happen to be a model, we will have our battle on the roller coaster, let's use three pokémon each, switching out counts as a forfeit, no using items, that sort of thing, also I must warn you that the entire Gym is the battlefield, not just the cart where we'll be sitting, and your pokémon are allowed to battle outside if they want, are you ready?"

"Uh, yeah, I guess-"

"Great, let's get on the cart then, Bianca, are you coming to watch?"

"Yeah."

"Great, great, great, great, great, let's get into the coaster, I can't wait!"

They entered a big blue cart with no roof which was mostly empty space, with only a row of seats backed against the outside of the cart. Though Black's instinct was to stand in a fighting pose for the battle, Bianca and Elesa sat down on the seats and strapped themselves in, so Black reluctantly did the same. "What about the pokémon?" he asked.

"Well," Elesa said, "they can't really battle sitting down and strapped in, and they go through worse than can happen to them here in most battles, it's less dangerous than it looks, though you can't see it the Gym's floor is not very deep below and covered in soft pillows, and there is no current flowing through the rails because the cart runs on a battery."

"This sounds like a really bad idea," Capella mused.

"Well, are you ready, let's go!"

The cart fired off at great speed and began shooting up and down and lurching left and right, making Boreas feel pretty queasy and scared. But there was no time to enjoy the ride, as the battle was beginning. "Did the fantastic speed leave you dizzy already?" Elesa asked, releasing an Emolga from its pokéball, "my beloved pokémon will be the next to make your head spin!"

"B-Boreas!" Black yelped while holding the seat next to him tightly, "show her what you can do, but don't overdo it this time!"

Boreas cautiously stood up, nearly lost his balance due to a sudden turn, and began chilling the air around him, careful not to let the attack get out of hand again, and summoned an Icy Wind.

The Emolga was much faster than him, however, and dived under the freezing gust, charging herself with electricity as she dived, and swooped just over Boreas, releasing all the charge. Every muscle in his body spasmed at the shock. He created more cold air to freeze his opponent, keeping it around himself until the Emolga attacked again this time. The flying rodent dived again, swooping at him with another Spark, so Boreas jumped aside, trapping her in the freezing cold cloud he had gathered while the attack missed. He made sure to keep the icy cloud around his opponent even as she struggled to move free, but she was just too fast. Boreas tried to hit her with another Icy Wind, but suddenly she had left the cart and was flying through the Gym on her own, electrifying Boreas from a distance with Thundershocks.

Boreas tried to hit her with Icy Wind and Powder Snow, but both attacks were just far too slow to hit the Emolga, especially at a distance. It graciously soared through the sky on its own, making Boreas feel like a right prat, unable to do much more than sit in the cart and wait for his opponent to electrify him. He realised he would need a more powerful and faster attack and tried to create an Ice Beam. He lowered his body temperature to Antarctic levels and channelled all the cold to his mouth, envisioning a thin beam of coldness. But all that happened was the saliva in his mouth freezing before he received another shock.

He realised that wouldn't work either and looked ahead to see where the cart was going, just in time to brace himself for a loop. As they were going upside-down in the loop, Emolga flew through it, shocking Boreas at every point of the loop. Boreas' fur was now constantly standing straight up with charge and he was rapidly weakening, but saw something ahead that gave him a chance. He summoned the largest icy cloud he could handle safely, and instead of actually trying to hit Emolga with it he tried to herd her to the exact spot he wanted her to be.

The moment they reached the sharp turn Boreas had seen, he jumped out of the carriage, using his momentum for an enormous jump, and landed on the surprised Emolga in mid-air. The moment he touched her, he received a severe static shock, and she immediately began giving him more shocks as she tried at the same time to keep flying. That was, of course, not working with a Glaceon five times heavier than her refusing to let go despite the defibrillating shocks he received. Boreas channelled all the cold inside him to his mouth once again and sunk his ice-cold teeth into his opponent.

They were rapidly collapsing to a lower part of the tracks, but the cart had gone through several turns while they were fighting in mid-air and was now approaching the part they were collapsing to. Alternatively freezing and shocking each other, they hit the cart with a mighty thud. Boreas was in severe pain and felt his consciousness slip away like a particularly large fish you've just caught slipping from your hands back into the water before you even had the chance to show it to anyone. Despite his best efforts to stay awake, everything went black.

–

Boreas awoke wondering why everything was shaking so much. It felt as if he had gone to sleep in a roller coaster. He opened his eyes and yelped when he saw a huge yellow spider. Then he remembered what had happened and got up. He fell down again as the cart lunged, and was helped up by Octa. He saw Lucius was battling the Galvantula, exchanging flames and electricity.

"What did I miss?" Boreas asked as the spider jumped over Lucius' attack, launched a thick, yellow, sparking strand of spider wire at a far away bit of track and swung away from the cart, leaving a furious Lucius behind.

"Hey, get back here, you stinkin' bug!" he roared.

"You were out for less than a minute, my dear fellow," Octa explained, "your opponent was unable to battle at the same time as you were, so Elesa sent this Galvantula out and Black responded by ordering Lucius to battle. And, as you can see, things are not going excellent."

Lucius was getting more and more covered by electrifying webs while his opponent used those same webs to spin wires at the different parts of the track and keep pace with the cart. It was pretty amazing how fast the slow-looking arachnid managed to crawl over its wires. "They're at an advantage to us," Boreas said, "they can move freely here, but we're stuck in this cart."

Octa nodded gravely. "If we can't solve our mobility problems, I fear we shall lose this battle."

That was proving to be increasingly true. No matter what Lucius tried, he became more and more stuck in the Electroweb with every move, and it was completely non-flammable too. The Galvantula was moving too fast to hit, and Lucius was continually being electrocuted. After a while, Black forfeited and ordered Capella to attack.

Capella attacked Galvantula with a howling Twister sucking up most of his webs, but the Galvantula managed to stay out of it himself and began firing Electrowebs at Capella. Though she was hit by them, her type had a natural resistance to electricity and her skin was much smoother than Lucius', making the webs stick less to her. She began parrying the spider's electric attacks with her own Thunder Waves. The Galvantula soon approached the cart closer, and jumped on top of Capella, sinking his mandibles into her skin and delivering shocks directly to the flesh in this way.

Capella wrapped herself around Galvantula and squeezed him as hard as she could while shocking him with her own electricity, but with his mandibles biting and shocking her, she couldn't keep it up for long and eventually fainted.

"We... Lost." Boreas muttered disappointedly.

"Whew!" Elesa said, "I won, but you and your pokémon shone brilliantly! I'll be more than happy to grant you a rematch once you've trained enough!"


	24. Hours of Fun

Chapter Twenty-Four: Hours of Fun

Black, Cheren, Bianca, and their pokémon entered Nimbasa central station for the fifth day in a row. The large, round station featured twenty-five different platforms with trains to the various cities of Unova. The station was this huge because it made sure any station in Unova was reachable from any other by at most two trains, as every train stopped in Nimbasa at some point. But the platforms that interested the trainers were the five that hosted the Battle Subway. The Battle Subway consisted of several trains were trainers battled while being driven to their destination, so to Black, Bianca, and Cheren, that meant a morning of battling, an afternoon spent picnicking in some new place, and an evening spent battling again, which was great training and fun. That day they decided to try the one platform they hadn't tried yet.

"Sorry," the conductor stopped them, "this 'ere's a tag battle train. You can only board in groups of two or four."

"Oh, that's a shame. I guess we-"

"That's no problem, there are four of us," said a new voice.

They turned around in surprise to greet the new arrival. "Oh, hey White," greeted Black, "what are you doing in Nimbasa?"

"Just visiting the city."

Black introduced the others to one another and they boarded the train. They entered a large, mostly empty wagon and the train began riding.

"I guess we should get started with the battle," said Black.

"Right!" exclaimed Bianca, "I'm with Cheren!"

"What?" Cheren said while Bianca pulled him to the opposite side of the wagon by his sleeve, "but I want to team up with Black!"

Bianca stuck her tongue out at him. "Too late, you're with me now!"

"Then I guess we are a team as well," said White.

"Great. Let's use three pokémon each," said Black, "Octa, you're up first."

"In that case," Cheren said with a grin, "I'll use Pignite!"

"Then I'll use Oshy to complete our starter trio!" Bianca exclaimed.

"Don't you know anything?" Cheren asked exasperated, "You don't use pokémon that are at a type disadvantage to your opponent's if you can help it!"

"It's just a training battle, and how better to train him for battling electric types than to use him against his other weakness?"

"Training or not, you battle to win."

"Well, _I _battle to have fun!"

White cleared her throat. "Rufflet, go!"

The four pokémon looked at one another for a moment, then Octa summoned a Leaf Tornado at Oshy the Dewott, while Pignite encased itself in flames and bashed into Octa. To complicated matters further, Oshy slashed at Rufflet, who performed an aerial swoop over Pignite at the same time. As the battle turned into close combat, Octa switched to using Vine Whip attacks while Pignite used his fists and mass to do the talking.

Boreas was watching the battle intently, but slowly became aware that with each Vine Whip Octa used, Toxica's grin became a bit broader and her blush a bit deeper. Eventually she sighed deeply. "Oh, how I wish he would just sweep me off my feet, wrap me up with his gorgeous green body, and kiss my lips while he's at it..."

"Please excuse me while I go vomit into someone's eye," said Boreas, quickly moving away from Toxica to go to Lucius and Capella who were sitting a few metres further, chatting with White's pokémon, including, Boreas nervously noted, Febby.

"Hello, non-creepy, non-obsessed people," he greeted them.

"I take it Toxica was swooning over Octa once again, then?" Capella amusedly asked.

"More like obsessing over him."

"Don't worry," Lucius sneered, "I'm sure Octa has eyes for no-one but you."

"Shut up."

While Boreas hadn't been paying attention, the battle had continued and by now Octa was the only combatant left standing. "Octa," Black commanded, "switch out for Boreas."

"Good luck, my dear fellow," said Octa as they passed each other.

"Then it's up to you, Liepard!" Cheren said.

"Pansy," Bianca commanded, sending her Pansear out, "begin by lowering its defence with Tickle!"

White sent out her Vullaby to help Boreas. Pansear lurched at him, but he dodged with a quick roll that led his straight into Liepard's claws. The feline slashed him several times, opening long cuts on his body. As he recoiled in pain, Pansear used the opportunity to grab him and begin tickling his belly. Boreas recoiled and laughed as he tried to wrestle the Pansear off him.

–

_Present_

"So you're ticklish?" asked Aqua, interrupting Boreas.

"A bit, yeah," said Boreas.

A diabolic grin slowly spread on Aqua's face. "Oh, you are?" she said in a tone that was as sweet as a caramel onion.

Suddenly she jumped on top of him, placed her paws on his stomach, and started tickling him. He tried not to laugh, but the feeling of her tickling was too much to handle and he burst with laughter while his limbs convulsed uncontrollably. "Hahaha- No, stop it- Heehee- Please- Nononono- hahaha- Okay, stopstopstop, please- hahaha- knock it off, pleahease!"

"Never!" Aqua said, tickling even faster, "I'm going to tickle you to death!"

"Hihihi- pleaheaheahease- haha- stohohop!"

"_Maybe_ I'll be lenient to you if you beg me for mercy."

"Hahaha, mehehehehercy, please!"

"Percy?" she said with a look of ignorance, "My name's not Percy!"

"Hahaha, mehercy!"

"Do I look like a Percy to you?"

"No, no, hahaha, merceeheehee!"

"I don't think this "Percy" of yours can hear you, so he won't come to save you. You're all mine!"

Realising she wasn't going to show him any mercy, instead he tried to get his convulsing limbs under as much control as possible, grabbed her wrists, flipped her over on her back, and sat on her hind legs. "Ha!" he exclaimed, "we'll see who tickles whom to death now!"

He began tickling her stomach, finding out that she was ticklish too as she began laughing. "You do know you really deserved this, don't you?"

"Hahaha- if I sayayayay yes, will- heehee- you stohohohop it?"

"Not a chance," Boreas grinned, enjoying this position very much.

"Hahahaha- stop it- heeheeheehee- I gayayave you a fair way ouhout!"

"Okay, I'll stop if you can say 'antidisestablishmentarianism'."

"Ahahantidisest- ahahaha- Antidihihihi- it's not faihaihair, knock it ohohoff!"

"No, I don't think so."

"Hahaha- please- hahaha- pretty pleaheahease!"

"Not a chance. I'm tickling you to death!"

"Hahaha- no, mercy!"

"Percy? I don't know anyone named Percy."

"Thahahahat's mean! Hahaha- knock it off, mehehercy!"

"My name's Boreas, not Percy."

"Stohohop, Borayayas"

"That's not my name either."

"Hahaha- I give uhuhuhup. You win."

Boreas stopped tickling her, and immediately she grabbed him, rolled them over, and said "And now it's payback time!"

But Boreas was prepared for that: he used their rolling momentum to continue rolling and end up on top again. "You were saying?"

She laughed coquettely. "I guess I shouldn't have tried to trick you. Now you really win, you sly fox."

As she lay there, still panting from the tickle fight, she looked absolutely stunning and Boreas was overcome by an overpowering sense of adoration. "To think that I only met you yesterday..." he whispered.

"Incredible, isn't it?" Aqua whispered blushing, "it seems as if I've known you for so much longer."

"Yeah... It does." Boreas slowly leant forward, approaching her face closer and closer as she held her breath in expectation. But when he was only twenty centimetres away from her, he suddenly lost all courage. His nerves made him freeze in place, he blushed so deeply it was a surprise his eyes didn't pop out of their sockets, and he got off Aqua.

_Why didn't I kiss her? _He thought, angry at himself, _if I hadn't chickened out, I would be feeling her soft lips on mine right now!_

_But what if she didn't want to kiss me?_ A voice of doubt inside him asked.

_Obviously, she wanted to kiss me, she hasn't exactly made it a secret that she fancies me! And look at the disappointed look on her face right now._

A few seconds passed in a highly awkward silence, and Boreas was deeply jealous of another Boreas in a parallel universe, who was spending those few seconds snogging Aqua instead. But in this universe, the moment had passed and Boreas felt he had to break the silence somehow.

"So... um... when Bianca's Pansear tickled me, it wasn't remotely as much fun as that," he said.

"Oh?" asked Aqua, somehow managing to put interest, indifference, disappointment, and curiosity into just two letters.

"Yes," he continued, "because as soon as I began laughing, it gave me a Fire Punch instead and the Liepard scratched me with his claws."

–

_Past_

Boreas cringed in pain from the several attacks he was being hit by and his vision was rapidly going black. He concentrated on staying awake and created Powder Snow out of thin air to cool and soothe his wounds. Feeling less dizzy, he took a look at the world around him. His ally had taken the pressure off him by engaging both opponents at once, and though her bone-armour protected her she was clearly about to faint. He formed Icy Wind to envelop both opponents and draw them to him, but once again he was finding the attack was just not direct or powerful enough for his purposes. He tried to concentrate all his cold in a beam, but again, all it did was make his mouth very cold, so he resorted to using Ice Fang on Liepard instead.

Vullaby immediately reacted by stabbing her beak into Liepard's flesh like a knife. Pansear tried to use Boreas' distractedness while he bit Liepard to give him another Fire Punch, but Boreas had expected that, jumped aside just in time, and laughed as Pansear punched his own ally. Using moves from when he was an Eevee, he Tackled the Pansear multiple times, pinned him down to the ground, and allowed his ally to Peck it again. Pansear and Liepard were soon defeated, and Black recalled Boreas as White switched the wounded Vullaby out for Febby. "Boreas, switch out for Toxica."

Boreas was rather surprised by that, as he couldn't remember a single time when Black had used Toxica other than against Team Plasma. Apparently Cheren was surprised too. "An Oddish, really?"

"This is a training battle," explained Black as Boreas sat down by Capella and Octa, "and I think it's about time she evolved, so I'm training her."

"That _is_ weird, now that he mentions it," Capella mused, "Toxica should have evolved a while ago. I wonder why she hasn't yet?"

Boreas had a pretty good idea of why Toxica hadn't evolved yet, recalling her conversation with Octa where he called Glooms smelly and ugly. He didn't say anything, though, as though Toxica's fawning over Octa annoyed him highly, he still wasn't going to spill her secrets to others.

Cheren sent out his Tranquill and Bianca her Munna to battle Toxica and Febby. They began attacking Toxica, who unleashed a cloud of powder before jumping out of the way, so that her opponents both inhaled a big breath of the toxic powder.

"Excellent!" Octa exclaimed. For once, Boreas was not annoyed by this as he was too bust watching Febby. Toxica turned for a moment to smile and wave at him with one of her leaves, and was immediately punished for it as Tranquill swooped over her and slashes his talons across her face, while Munna was battling Febby.

"Just out of curiosity," Capella's calm voice whispered, "have you told her how you feel about her?"

Boreas turned in surprise. "Whom? And what am I supposed to feel about her and tell her about?"

Capella sighed. "Look, don't bother trying to hide it, it's pretty obvious and I've seen it often enough."

"Okay, fine," Boreas submitted, "no, I haven't told her."

"I've been in love more times than I can remember, and let me tell you that it's always better to tell her. Sure, she might not return the feelings, but in that case you get over it relatively quickly compared to how long it takes if you never know what she might have said."

"I appreciate your concern, but just let me deal with it my way, okay?"

After relentless psychic attacks by Munna, Febby collapsed. However, the effects of the Poisonpowder were rapidly becoming apparent: one by one, every vein in the opponents' bodies became clearly visible as it turned black, and their eyes were turning a bloody red while their faces were screwed up in pain.

Before White could even switch Febby out for Vullaby, Tranquill swooped over Toxica, scratching her with his claws. Meanwhile Munna's bleeding eyes glowed and Toxica seemed to be in severe pain. Within moments, she fainted as well.

"Woohoo!" Bianca cheered, "we won!"

"I'm afraid we didn't," said Cheren, "White still has a pokémon left, and Black only retreated his Servine and Glaceon, they never fainted, so he can use them again, while our last two pokémon are poisoned."

"Oh," said Bianca disappointed.

"We could call it a tie," suggested Black.

–

AUTHOR'S NOTES: While writing this chapter, I came across the word "Mephistophelean". It's an adjective that's essentially a synonym for fiendish or diabolical, and probably my new favourite word. Just say it a couple of times, it sounds beautiful, and it also looks really cool with the way it's spelled. It's a shame I didn't get a chance to have Octa use it this chapter, but I'll have him say it as soon as possible.


	25. Sunset at the Ferris Wheel

Chapter Twenty-Five: Sunset at the Ferris Wheel

"Take a look behind us, my dear fellow," said Octa.

Boreas did so. The Sun was setting, the lower half of it already disappeared behind the horizon while the upper half was very dim and red. Because they were on Main Boulevard, a broad street that crossed Nimbasa in a single straight line, they could see it even in the middle of the city. "Yes, it's a sunset," observed Boreas.

"I think it looks really romantic..." Toxica swooned.

"Uh, yes, quite," said Octa, "but 'tis no ordinary sunset, you see. Today is 23 September, meaning 'tis an equinox."

"Equinox..." Boreas thought, knowing he'd heard the word before, "That's your ancestor's name, innit? The one your family names itself after, because he was pretty awesome?"

"Quite right, my dear fellow. I am pleased you remember some of my family's history. However, my illustrious ancestor is not the type of equinox I speak of. I mean the astronomical event. You see, twice a year, as the Earth moves around the Sun in its 360 day-long orbit, its rotational axis is pointed at an angle exactly perpendicular to the Sun's direction, meaning the Sun is exactly above the Equator the entire day. Thus these are the only two days of the year when day and night are exactly equal in length, meaning the Sun rises precisely in the East at 6:00, and it sets precisely in the West at exactly 18:00, which is..." he looked at a nearby clock and then at the Sun, "in one minute."

The last bit of the Sun that was still above the horizon turned into a stripe of red, and then disappeared completely. "Naturally," Octa spoke, "the equinox is also by definition the conclusion of summer and the commencement of autumn. 'Tis a shame, really, I shall miss the heat and light."

Boreas grinned. "Well, I shan't. I didn't like the summer when I was an Eevee, and evolving to an ice type really hasn't improved my opinion of it. I have never seen an autumn, but I think I'll like it."

Lucius uttered a sigh that might have been mistaken for an approaching hurricane. "How long's Black gonna stay inside? 'Till we all died of old age?"

"Have some patience," lectured Octa, "You do not see Boreas complaining, despite his astounding lack of patience."

Three people in long coats entered the shop where Black was. "What do I care what Boreas does," snapped Lucius, "he's probably too mesmerised by your fancy-shmancy talk of the Sun and equinoxes to be bored."

"Hey!" growled Boreas.

"_Equinoctes_," bettered Octa.

"He's been in the stupid egg shop for hours," Lucius exaggerated, "If he doesn't get out in a minute, I'm goin' in to get him, and to hell with possibly upsetting the newly hatched pokémon."

"Please do," grinned Octa. "Go in and have a callow Igglibuff or a beatific Cleffa imprint on you. I can already imagine how much you would like a cherubic little creature with the misapprehension you were its mother following you wherever you went."

"Hmpf," Lucius grunted, but he didn't get the chance to say anything else, as there was suddenly sound of commotion inside the shop, and they heard Black's voice calling for their help.

Inside, the people in the long coats had thrown their coats off to reveal themselves as Team Plasma. One of them was just finishing stating their demands.

"I have some better demands," stated Black as his pokémon entered, "One: you leave here right now, without disturbing a single egg or baby pokémon. Two: you tell me and the police every little bit of information you have on Team Plasma, then you leave Plasma forever."

The grunts laughed. "Ha, why should we listen to some brat?"

"Because this brat has three badges and will kick your arses if you don't listen to him," said Black.

"Ha! I'll warn you, brat: Sage Zinzolin authorised us to use any means necessary to liberate these pokémon eggs. We won't hesitate stepping over your dead body if you force us to."

"And what are you going to do with these eggs?" Black angrily asked, "when you "liberated" my pokémon, I found them back in cages, their injuries not even treated! You shan't steal these helpless eggs!"

"Then prepare to die, brat!"

–

A few minutes later, the grunts had returned their pokémon to their pokéballs after losing the battle. "Uh oh, this is bad for Team Plasma! Or PlasBad for short!"

"Now will you-" Black started, but the Plasma grunts had already thrown smoke bombs.

"Oh no," Boreas said determined, "not this time!"

He created a fierce Icy Wind, blowing most of the smoke out of the shop. The Plasma grunts were already outside, running rapidly over the boulevard. They began pursuing them immediately, but it almost seemed as if people were intentionally getting in their way, and the Plasma grunts were very fast runners. Unbelievable though it may be, they were getting away. The last glimpse they saw of the grunts in the distance, they entered one of Nimbasa's amusement parks.

Boreas tried to pick up their scent in the amusement park, but between the thousands of human and pokémon scents in the busy park it was like seeking a piece of hay in a stack of needles. It seemed they had lost Team Plasma, but then they saw a human in white clothes with long, green hair. "N!"

N was surprised to see them. "Oh, hello, Octa. Is that you, Boreas? You evolved to a Glaceon, that's great!"

"N, there's no time to talk!" said Boreas, "we're looking for Team Plasma, they ran into the amusement park!"

"Team Plasma, eh?" N smiled, "yes, I saw them run by just now. Come with me."

They followed N for a while, but it soon became apparent that he'd lost them too. "Are you sure you saw them?" asked Black.

"Yes," said N, "Let's ride the Ferris wheel and see if we can spot them."

A large Ferris wheel, at least thirty metres in diameter was supported by a huge steel scaffolding. Eight glass carriages that were attached to the big wheel by their metal frames hung from the wheel and they entered the one that was just at the bottom of the wheel. The doors closed automatically as it began to rise.

Inside the carriage, N spoke: "I love Ferris wheels."

Black was busy looking out of the cart trying to spot Team Plasma. "Oh, do you?"

N nodded. "The Circular motion... The mechanics... They're like collections of elegant formulas."

Black seemed a bit weirded out. "I... guess they are."

An awkward silence descended over the cart as it passed its highest point. After a while, N drew a deep breath. "I must tell you... I am the king of Team Plasma."

Boreas was quite surprised by that remark. It was obviously not meant literally, but he wasn't sure what N really meant by it. A look at the faces of him companions showed the same puzzlement in them. Black smiled a disbelieving smile. "Are you?"

N nodded, seemingly oblivious of the sarcasm. "Ghetsis asked me to work with him to save pokémon."

"Did he?" asked Black.

"I wonder how many pokémon exist in this world."

They had reached the ground again and exited the carriage. "I didn't see them, unfortunately," said Black, "I guess they must be somewhere inside."

After walking for a minute, they passed and ice cream parlour just as the three Plasma grunts came out of it. They stood still when they saw N and Black. "My lord N!" one of them exclaimed.

"What?" said Black, "Do you mean you were speaking the truth? The literal truth?"

N seemed insulted. "Of course! Why would I lie? Only dishonest humans lie."

Boreas' opinion of N plummeted like Icarus with the Titanic tied to his feet. He was completely speechless. "You..." he stammered furiously, "You fancy-dress fascist! _Your_ Team Plasma set me on _fire_! And that really hurt!"

Black furiously set a step forward as N tried to say something. "_You_'re Team Plasma's leader?" he spat in disgust, "_You_'re responsible for all the things they did?"

"Team Plasma tried to drown me, and kidnapped baby pokémon and eggs from the daycare!" Boreas accused N.

"Okay," said N, "I know you and Team Plasma don't always see eye to eye."

"Eye to eye?" spat Boreas, "you broke my legs and stuffed me in a cage for a week! You murdered my friend!"

"I know my subjects haven't treated you too kindly," said N, "but surely you're exaggerating. They would never do anything like that."

"Exaggerating? I couldn't walk for weeks! And even after that, it hurt until I evolved! Half my fur was burnt off and I would've been Dragon Pulsed to death if I hadn't got really lucky! And they were directly responsible for murdering Thomas!"

"Enough!" N shouted, surprising everyone, "this is not the time or place to discuss whatever Team Plasma might have done to you. What's important now is my subjects. You are part of the people we brought in to save the pokémon. That means you're under my protection. Go now, report to sage Zinzolin, and I'll cover your retreat," he tossed a pokéball and released a Tropius as the grunts began running away, "Perhaps I can't beat you here and now, but my battle will allow my subjects to escape."

"No, it won't," said Black, "Boreas, battle that Tropius while the others go after the grunts."

As the others ran past N, he threw four pokéballs at once over his shoulder, somehow managing to have every one land directly in front of one of them. Lucius was blocked by a Krokorok, Capella by a Scraggy, Toxica by a Darumaka, and Octa by a Sigilyph.

They had no choice but to fight the quintuple battle. Fortunately Boreas' opponent was at a severe type disadvantage and he thought there was still a chance to catch Plasma if he finished the Tropius quickly. He created an Icy Wind and enveloped the Tropius in it, expecting to win the battle in a single hit, but the Tropius emerged from the icy cloud grinning, barely even hurt. Boreas was so surprised he didn't even think of dodging when it pounced him and began slashing at his face. He squirmed under the weight of the massively heavy sauropod pressing on his ribcage, but couldn't manage to escape from under it. He could barely even breathe, and was pretty sure his ribs were about to break.

Boreas tried to free himself by summoning Powder Snow to fall on the heavy sauropod, but it didn't seem to care much. It kept slashing at him, which puzzled him, as it didn't even have sharp claws.

"Diego?" he asked, "how in the name of Kyogre's closet organiser did you get so heavy?"

The disguised Zorua was so surprised by Boreas saying his name that he was momentarily very distracted, so Boreas used that moment to scratch at where he hoped the other fox's face was while he kicked him using his legs. To Boreas' fortune, his leg hit something soft with great force and the fake Tropius howled in pain, giving Boreas a chance to wriggle free and envelop his opponent with another icy cloud. When the cloud disappeared the Tropius was gone, and in its place was a small black fox with an agonised expression on his face.

"I thought as much," said Boreas smugly, "but how did you get so crushingly heavy?"

"I... Have heavy bones," the Zorua lied between teeth clenched in pain.

Boreas laughed. "That is a blatant lie, and we both know it. Either your bones are made of enriched uranium, or..." he smiled as what he realised was the truth popped into his head, connecting all the dots, "Or you've evolved to Zoroark and are still using an illusion. That's the truth, isn't it?"

The still pained expression on Diego's face made place for resentment, and then the Zorua was gone and a huge Zoroark standing on its hind legs was in its place. _Yikes_, thought Boreas, _he's as large as a human, it's no wonder he was so heavy, _"So, you show your true form."

"You're pretty clever," said Diego. "I've rarely battled someone whom figured out the fact that I'm a Zorua, much fewer whom manage to deduce that I'm actually a Zoroark now. But that won't help you defeat me."

Boreas laughed, though he did realise the Zoroark had a point, there was little chance of him defeating his opponent if he didn't think of something. "I guess your master doesn't tell you much about Team Plasma's matters, then."

"My master?" Diego scoffed, circling Boreas like a predator circling its prey, "I have no master. N is my best friend, and he tells me _everything_."

"Apparently he didn't tell you that I defeated three of his Sages using nothing more than my wit," bragged Boreas, though he mentally added: _and an immense amount of luck and a lot of help from my friends. And I never really defeated Bronius. _"You don't have the skills or the wit to defeat me."

"Wit?" Diego scoffed, "I don't need wit to break your spine!"

"See? That wasn't witty at all."

Suddenly Diego charged Boreas, and as he ran a wave of murk formed around him; it was shaped like a gigantic monstrous maw about to devour Boreas. Boreas froze with fear for just a second before realising it was just an illusion, but that second was all Diego needed to pounce him with all his massive weight, slash a bloody red striped across his chest with his claws, lift him up, and punch him away with a near bonebreaking impact. Boreas landed in a heap several metres away, groaning in severe pain. The battle was beginning to look and feel a lot like a fistfight with a train.

Diego didn't even bother attacking him again, instead waiting for him to rise with mock-gallantry. Boreas managed to get up, groaning in pain. "If he told you- Argh!- everything, that means you must've known he's the king of Team Plasma." Boreas enveloped his opponent in a freezing cold cloud.

The Zoroark jumped out of the icy cloud, small bits of ice glistening in his fur, and pounced Boreas, whom managed to dodge this time. "Knew it? I was there at his coronation as his chamberlain! And even before that, I have been with N from the very beginning. Without my guidance and friendship, he would never have grown into the man he is now, the man that Team Plasma and all pokémon need."

Boreas enveloped him in another freezing cloud, but this time the larger vulpine didn't jump out immediately. Instead the white cloud of coldness transformed, became pointier and dark, until it looked just like a gigantic Zoroark's head. As the Zoroark licked its lips looking at him and opened its mouth, Boreas had to remind himself very hard that it was just an illusion, and that Diego was still somewhere in the actual cloud, rapidly freezing. Determined not to panic or drop his cloud, he stood his ground watching for the real Diego even as the huge maw opened up and he could see all the way into the illusion's throat.

Boreas couldn't resist closing his eyes in fear for a moment as hundreds of huge teeth came down, and the real Zoroark used this single moment to pounce him, nearly crushing him as he landed on top of him. After a few more slashes, Diego jumped off. Boreas rolled away and jumped to his feet, and Diego immediately backhanded him across the face, making him do a flip in midair and land on his back with an impact that promised to hurt for weeks to come.

As he lay staring at the sky turning all colours of the rainbow and quite a few outside of it, the dark form of Diego entered his field of view, towering above him with a broad grin. He realised it was absolutely adamant that he kept his distance from the Zoroark, as he didn't stand a chance in physical combat against and opponent twice as large, thrice as heavy, and at least five times as strong as him. Though if he kept his distance it would be hard to deal with the illusions, especially now that his opponent seemed to have latched on to the primal fear of being eaten.

"Had enough yet?" Diego asked.

As the sky returned to dark blue, Boreas decided to keep Diego talking as long as possible to catch his breath back and so that he might have a chance to think of something. "Argh, you never seemed this tough when you battled Octa."

Diego's smiled broadened. "Evolution can change a lot."

As his eyes became focused, Boreas noticed some details that showed his opponent to be much less invulnerable than he seemed: thousands of tiny ice crystals glistened in his fur, and there were even ice crystals in his nose and the corners of his eyes. His long pony tail was wrapped around him for warmth and he was slightly shivering. "I guess you're right," he spoke slowly to stall. "When I evolved, I was losing a battle with a Leavanny, but then-" he looked in open-mouthed surprise at the sky behind Diego, "WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?"

At the same moment that Diego looked up, Boreas rolled to his feet, exhaled a cloud of cold air, and ran as fast as his legs could carry him to the Ferris wheel. He could hear the sounds of the other fox behind him pursuing. At the Ferris wheel one of the carriages was just closing and rising, so Boreas sprinted even faster to jump through the door before it closed. He was a little too slow, so instead of jumping into the carriage, he jumped on top of it instead as it was rapidly going up the wheel. The carriage rocked as Diego jumped too, didn't make the jump, and hung from the edge of the carriage by his front paws. Before the Zoroark could climb on, Boreas stepped on his paws and pushed them off the slippery glass surface. He hit the ground four metres lower and immediately ran to jump on the next carriage.

As Diego climbed on the other carriage, Boreas created all the cold he dared handle and sent it in a wintrous cloud to Diego's cart, surrounding it in a miniature hailstorm. What exactly was happening wasn't visible because the cloud obscured it, but it suddenly rained shards under the cart as the glass had shattered from the intense contrast in temperature between its inside and outside. Boreas knew what was going to happen next and was prepared for any manner of illusionary horror emerging from the cloud.

A phenomenal roar sounded behind him as a gigantic Steelix had popped up there. He startled, not expecting it to come from that side, and slipped on the smooth glass, over the edge of the cart, and barely managed to grab it again. His claws couldn't hold on to the glass very well, though, so he was rapidly slipping away. He took a look down, and saw, aside from the open maw of the illusionary Steelix, the ground already being shockingly distant. He was half up on the wheel, at a height of about twenty metres. He nearly slipped, pushed himself to the left, and managed to grab the metal frame of the cart with a single claw. He climbed back on the cart, this time making sure he kept at least one foot on the metal frame and ignored the Steelix that was doing its best to scare him.

He took a look at Diego's cart and saw the glass had been completely destroyed; it only existed of the seats hanging from the metal frame and all of it was covered in snow and ice. But no Diego. Boreas spotted him climbing from the destroyed cart to Boreas' cart by the rotating frame of the big wheel itself. He was already past the halfway point and rapidly approaching. Boreas created a hailstorm around Diego, hoping to make his paws so cold that he wouldn't be able to hold on any more, while he tried his very best to ignore the terrifying Steelix that appeared to be about to eat the cart and Boreas with it. His instincts were telling him to get away, run away, even jump down, anything to avoid being eaten, though he knew it was a fake. He forced himself to concentrate on nothing but his opponent even when the entire cart disappeared in the gigantic steel mouth. He could barely contain his panic, yet he kept the freezing cloud where he thought his real opponent was.

He was almost happy when the fake Steelix's mouth disappeared as the heavily besnowed Diego jumped on the cart with a great swing. He ducked one massive punch, bit his opponent, and nearly slipped off the cart's edge. He jumped aside from the Zoroark's claw, but now found himself on the cart's corner. He considered climbing down, but the metal frame didn't cover this part of the cart and he couldn't risk it on the glass. Diego's powerful, but icy cold claw grabbed him around the neck and lifted him, cutting off his breath. He struggled, but the Zoroark's grip was too powerful. He tried kicking his opponent again, but since he held him at arm's length he couldn't reach him. Zoroark watched him struggle for breath with a satisfied grin, and for a moment Boreas thought he was going to choke him to death.

The cart reached its highest point where it passed by the steel scaffolding that held the big wheel; Diego, still holding Boreas in his death grip, jumped over from the cart to the scaffolding and climbed up using his three spare paws. Boreas wasn't quite sure what happened next because oxygen deprivation was beginning to black him out, but he felt two lungsful of sweet air enter him at the same moment as something heavy grabbed his tail painfully hard and hung from it. He opened his eyes to tell whatever it was to sod off and go pester someone else, when he saw nothing hung from his tail, but instead it was firmly stuck between two pieces of the metal scaffolding. He wasn't sure he had completely recovered, because for some reason the twilight sky was down and gravity seemed to pull up.

He looked up and yelped when he saw the Earth there. "What in the name of Darkrai's saggy left-" he began, before realising that he was in fact hanging upside down by his tail, almost fifty metres high in the scaffolding. He was dangling over nothing but open air, not a single metal beam in reach to hold on to. When he looked what was up to him, he saw Diego climbing down the scaffolding, back to the wheel.

"Diego!" Boreas shouted, making the other vulpine look up, "you utter bastard, get me down right now!"

The Zoroark looked up to him and grinned. "Or what?"

"Or..." he began, realising there was nothing he wasn't in a position to demand anything, "Or I will fall to my death when my tail slips away from between these beams. You win, just help me down."

"Not much chance of that, I made sure your tail was stuck so hard it won't let go by itself." he continued climbing down.

"You can't just leave me here!"

"Can't I? Watch me. That kick you gave me still hurts, so I'm not going to help you myself. Don't worry, though, I'll tell your friends where they can find you." He jumped on a passing carriage and began going down, then added: "Tomorrow morning."

Boreas found he couldn't even reach Diego with an Icy Wind, because he was just too far away. Instead he furiously roared every curse and insult he could think of at the grinning Zoroark. Then he tried pulling himself up, but he just couldn't get high enough to reach his stuck tail, which was already beginning to hurt from being clenched between the two beams and from having his full weight hang from it.

He continued roaring insults at the Zoroark, but he had arrived at the ground, much too far away to hear the names Boreas called him, and was walking away from the big wheel with an arrogant swagger. All Boreas' rage and hate concentrated itself in a single ice-cold point in his throat, and when he opened his mouth to call Diego a two-timing troglodyte, a super thin beam of intense cold fired out at high speed instead, striking the distant figure of Diego in the small of the back barely a second later. To his enjoyment he saw Diego fall over, look up at him, and begin to run away like a frightened rabbit instead. Boreas tried to make another Ice Beam, but found he couldn't do it again, no matter how hard he tried.

Diego disappeared from his view when he turned a corner, and Boreas' thoughts turned to how he was going to get out of his current predicament. He saw a few humans get in a carriage down and he tried to get their attention and hoped they would see him. But he soon found that he was virtually impossible to see from the carriages: not only was it dark and would they have to look straight up, but at almost every point of the wheel he would be obscured by the metal frame on the roofs of the carriages.

He had some hope that the operators of the cart would wonder what had happened to the destroyed cart and go investigate the entire wheel, but they just didn't seem to care enough to investigate at night.

Contemplating the stars below him as his tail began aching more and more, he realised two things: he would kill Diego next time they met, and that it would be eleven very, very long hours until dawn.

–

AUTHOR'S NOTES: It looks like we're leaving Boreas in a bit of an uncomfortable position here. When writing this chapter, I went to bulbapedia to check Zoroark's moveset, and was utterly surprised when I saw Zoroark is 1,6 metres high and 81 kilos! Zoroark is much larger than I thought it was, and especially heavier, so it'd be a scary opponent for a much smaller Glaceon. In fact, I took the liberty of calculating its body mass index, and found it was an obese 31,7. However, a single look shows it's not fat at all, instead being very thin. The only explanation I can come up with is that Zoroark has a higher density then humans. There's two problems with this though: first of all flesh has a density similar to that of water, which is why almost every animal in the world has a density similar to that of water, so Zoroark would need led-coated bones or something to make it that dense. The other problem is that if a Zoroark with a density significantly higher than water would fall into water, it'd sink like a brick. Even if it had learned to swim, it'd be like swimming with a weight of about 20-30 kilos tied to your feet.

Also, I hope no one is annoyed that I skipped the battle with the grunts. I figured the battle with N would be much more interesting and having an easy battle against some random grunts would probably just have taken attention away from it.


	26. Of Trapped Tails and Crazy Corvids

Chapter Twenty-Six: Of Trapped Tails, Crazy Corvids, and Fencing Friends

Boreas clenched his teeth in pain, as he had for what felt like days by now. He could barely believe the Sun _still_ hadn't risen. How long it was exactly that he had been hanging upside down by his tail, he would know once he finished some final calculations. The previous evening, after some time of just furiously hanging there cursing Diego, he had realised he would need something to occupy his mind and some way to tell the time. So he had tried to recall several things Octa had once told him about the movements of the Sun and stars. He had forgotten most of it, but had the time to work the bits he had forgotten out. In fact that had taken what Boreas was sure was most of the night. The first thing he'd done was to determine the location of the Sun, as he'd been sure he'd need that to tell the time. Since the Sun was obviously under the horizon, he picked a bright star in the constellation Espeon that was just rising in the east, and therefore should be approximately at the opposite side of the sky from the Sun. Thus if he followed the star, he also knew where the Sun was under the horizon. After a lot of time of thinking and calculating while the pain in his tail slowly increased from annoying to torturous, now finally knew the exact location of the Sun under the horizon. It was at an angle of 47 degrees west of the north, and since it moved a full circle every day, it had to move fifteen degrees each hour, meaning it was...

"Eight minutes to nine..." Boreas whispered in horror. He had barely been hanging for two hours and there were still at least nine hours to go before someone would come rescue him. Fury and hate washed over him again like a crimson wave of blood. "Diego, I hate you!" he yelled at the night, "I will cut your gut open and strangle you with your own intestines! I will cut off your toes and tracheotomise you with them! I will castrate you with a train and bury you alive!"

Because of the shouting he noticed his throat was getting dry and he was feeling very thirsty. That wasn't much of a concern now, but in nine hours, he imagined, he would be very dehydrated. He had a splitting headache from all the hanging upside down, and muscles he rarely used hurt, protesting against their sudden, prolonged use to maintain a position that was not entirely uncomfortable with gravity coming from the wrong side. For a moment, he caught himself wishing he had never been born, but he quickly amended that to wishing Diego had never been born. As the constant, throbbing waves of pain from his tail grew a tiny bit worse with each heartbeat, he continued imagining graphic ways to kill the Zoroark.

While he was enjoying the thought of shattering a glass window with Diego's head and then force-feeding him the shards, he suddenly noticed something he hadn't noticed before: as one of the moons passed behind the higher parts of the scaffolding, the silhouette of a Murkrow was clearly contrasted against the pale moon. Boreas couldn't believe his luck to have someone with wings nearby. "Help!" he shouted.

The Murkrow had to have heard him as it was pretty close, but it didn't react at all to him. "Hey! Help me! Hello, Murkrow, look at me, I'm right here!"

The Murkrow didn't even turn around to look at him. "Please, c'mon, you're my only hope! If you don't help me, I'll hang here until the morning, and I'm already in a lot of pain!"

Absolutely no reaction. "Look, helping me won't cause you any trouble at all, it'll be quite easy! You just have to warn someone on the ground that I'm up here, that's all I ask, you don't have to fly me down or anything. I'll be eternally grateful and I'll get you mountains of food! And shiny things, lots of shiny things, you must like those! And anything else you want, you only have to ask and I'll get it for you!"

The Murkrow didn't move a muscle. "Fine! You're just as bad as the guy who hung me here! I hope the same thing happens to you some day!"

Boreas went back to grinding his teeth in pain and fury while he imagined more ways to kill Diego, now occasionally guest-starring a certain Murkrow. After a while, he saw the Murkrow still hadn't moved, which annoyed him to no end. "Do you enjoy watching me hang here?"

"I'm not watching you," a hoarse voice said.

"Well, well," Boreas sneered, "it can talk!"

"What can?"

"You!"

"Yes, I can."

"Why didn't you say anything earlier?"

"Because I wasn't sure if you were talking to me."

"What? Whom else could I have been speaking to? I even called you Murkrow!"

"That's not my name, and you could've been talking to another Murkrow. After a while, I came to the conclusion that you were talking to me, but then I realised that since you hadn't asked any questions, you probably weren't waiting for answers."

Boreas wasn't sure whether the Murkrow was being intentionally unhelpful or just insane. "I- What- Never mind. Can you please help me?"

"With what?"

"Oh, I've got this scratch on my back, could you get it for me?"

"Okay," said the Murkrow, beginning to spread its ragged wings.

"No," Boreas explained in exasperation, "I was obviously being sarcastic. What do you _think_ I want help with?"

"I don't know," said the Murkrow, with genuine sounding confusion in its voice.

"Okay, I'll give you a hint: I don't have wings. Yet, I'm here at a height of fifty metres. My tail is crushed between two metal beams and I'm hanging upside-down from it."

The Murkrow's silhouette shrugged after a long period of deliberation.

"Well, help me down, obviously!" Boreas snapped.

"Don't you like it up here?"

"Let me repeat: I'm hanging upside-down by my bloody tail from a metal scaffolding over a huge depth and it hurts terribly. I have had better times. Will you please help me?"

"Okay. What do you want me to do?"

"Great! Fly down and look for a Servine named Octa. He has a posh, upper-class accent, talks like an overacting Shakespearean ham, and walks as if he owns the planet. An annoying Oddish is usually following him around. He's probably looking for me so he'll be in or near the amusement park. Otherwise he'll be in the pokécenter. Tell him where I am and that I need his help. My name is Boreas."

"Okay." The Murkrow flew off, leaving Boreas alone yet again, though at least with some hope of salvation now. The pain in his tail was a lot more bearable now that he wasn't faced with the prospect of it continuing for nine more hours and only getting worse. But after a while, doubt began to gnaw at him. The Murkrow had seemed either intentionally obfuscating and unhelpful or a bit dotty. And he didn't even know its name, or even its gender, and its silhouette had looked ragged and shaggy. The more he thought about it, the more he realised what an idiot he had been to send his only hope away so soon. After some more time passed, all his hope for an early rescue had turned to bitter despair, and he tried to find the Sun's position under the horizon again to find out how long he still had to go.

"42 degrees west of the north," he sighed as the pain in his tail slightly increased to a whole new form of horrible. Still almost nine hours to go.

It is, of course, a well-known fact that time seems to pass at different speeds depending on the situation you;'re in. When you're having a great time with friends, the river of time seems to be approaching a waterfall, rapidly churning at great speed; while if you are bored and have nothing to do, it flows like a river of syrup slowly crawling through a plain instead. When you're hanging by your tail from a metal scaffolding, the river of times has frozen to a glacier: it has not entirely stopped, which is of course impossible, but the movement is so slow that every second seems like an eternity.

Pain kept pulsating through Boreas' tail with every heartbeat. _If there' a second between each heartbeat,_ Boreas thought, _I still have more than thirty thousand to go before I'm rescued. At least._

He was beginning to notice another discomfort: he was getting very tired. The hanging was surprisingly exhausting. But, of course, there was little chance he would manage to nap between the pain, the thirst, the unusual position, the anger, and gravity pulling his eyelids up.

"By Jove, 'tis really him! My dear fellow, are you conscious?"

"Octa?" he mumbled, and saw his friend, with the Murkrow, on the scaffolding. "Octa, I've never been so happy to see you!"

"Hang on, my dear fellow," Octa called, climbing up the scaffolding, "I am getting you out of there."

"Brilliant choice of words, right there," Boreas remarked, "why don't you ask me how it's hanging while you're at it?"

When Octa had reached the same height, he extended two vines, wrapped them around Boreas' shoulders and back, and lifted him slightly up, taking most of the weight off his tail. Boreas gasped with delight as the pain decreased by a lot immediately.

When Octa reached the beams were Boreas' tail was crushed between, he sucked air into his mouth with a sort of backwards flute that seemed to indicate it was going to be difficult to help Boreas. "How the devil did you end up in this position, my dear fellow?"

"Diego hung me up here."

An angry cloud darkened Octa's brow. "How barbaric."

"Yeah," Boreas agreed, "now can you get me down from here?"

"'Tis not going to be easy, my dear fellow. First, I shall obviously have to pull you up onto this beam, or you'll fall. Then 'tis likely going to take the strength of both of us to release your tail. I should incidentally warn you: your tail is not a pleasant sight."

"It doesn't feel too great either."

Octa held on to the beam with his three other vines and pulled Boreas up with the two wrapped around him. When Octa deposited him on the beam it immediately went black in front of his eyes and he collapsed into his friend's arms as the blood flowed away from his head. It took about a minute before his heart had coped with gravity's new direction and he was as conscious as could reasonably be expected in the situation, so Octa let him go and he held on to the beam by himself. He took a look at his tail. What little of it he could see looked very bad; it was swollen and bloody. Boreas was sort of happy that he couldn't see the part of his tail that was crushed between the beams as, judging by the amount of blood that dyed the beams, it looked even worse.

"Are you ready?" Octa asked as they both got ready to pull the beam apart. They both pulled the top beam with all their strength, but it only moved for a tiny bit. Boreas tried to get his tail out, but it hurt a lot so he pulled the beam harder to make more room instead. Suddenly Octa grabbed his tail and gave it a strong yank, freeing it but causing terrible pain to Boreas as his wounds dragged against the beams. They let the beam go, Boreas cursing in pain. He took a look at his tail and nearly gagged. Most of the skin of the part that had been stuck was gone and it was very swollen. Boreas even thought he saw a glimpse of bone through a particularly deep wound. Now that his blood could flow freely into his tail, without being impeded by gravity and the crushing beams, the wounds began bleeding badly. Boreas suddenly felt very weak and wondered how he was ever going to get down. Octa answered that for him as he wrapped three vines around him, supporting most of Boreas' weight.

"So, where are the others?" Boreas asked.

"We are unsure of Black's location. Toxica and Capella both lack arms to climb with, and Lucius preferred to have me risk my life rather than he risk his."

Boreas had almost forgotten the Murkrow, sitting on the scaffolding again. "Murkrow! Thank you!"

She (as Boreas was now pretty sure it was a female) looked at him with a quizzical expression. "What for?"

"For saving me."

"But didn't your friend save you?"

"Yes, but you called him. I have to thank you for allowing me to escape early. What's your name?"

It seemed to be a very difficult question, as she had to think about it for a while. "What about Selene? Yes, Selene will do."

"Well then, Selene, or whatever your real name might be, if there's ever anything I can do for you, you only have to ask."

They climbed on in silence as Selene kept sitting on the scaffolding. After a while, Octa smirked. ""Talks like an overacting Shakespearean ham and walks like he owns the world", hmm?"

–

_Present_

"What a git," said Aqua, "to leave you hanging up there."

"Yeah," Boreas agreed, "even if I did kick him in a very sensitive spot, that was just cruel. I'm very lucky to have managed to get out after less than three hours."

"You were. But did your tail recover completely? Let me feel." Her soft, strong tail wrapped around his and began rubbing and massaging it. Boreas felt dizzy, almost as if the blood was flowing away from his head again, though a fierce blush proved the opposite to be true.

"No, your tail feels fine. Great, even."

"Actually," said Boreas, thinking quickly, "Nurse Death couldn't heal all the damage, if you feel very carefully and take a long time for it, you may feel some damage yet."

Aqua grinned and winked coquettishly. "Okay, then I'll look for it. While I try to find this damaged spot, why don't you tell me more about the pokémon musical? And I obviously want you to sing the songs for me while you're at it."

"I'm not sure if- uh- I can concentrate enough to talk sensibly with you fondling my tail like that."

"Oh, I'll stop it then, shan't I?"

"-No," Boreas quickly added, "I was wrong, I could easily handle it."

–

_Past_

"Aww, don't be such a party pooper," Bianca whined.

"I will _not_ waste my time on this," Cheren resolutely stated.

"Since when is having fun a waste of time?"

"In case you forgot, we're on a pokémon journey, and are supposed to be training to beat Elesa. We won't defeat her by wasting our time with this rubbish, we can only win by training on the Battle Subway."

"Or in your case, on other roller coasters."

"I told you, I'm not-"

Black interrupted him. "Here's an idea, Cheren: why don't we go see a musical first to see what it's like, and if we like it we can follow Bianca's plan enter our own pokémon into one."

"Hmpf," Cheren sighed, "fine. Let's get it over with."

Boreas felt a sharp pinch in his shoulder as Selene landed there. "Oh, hey Selene. What's up?"

The shabby-looking Murkrow looked at the sky. "Clouds. What are you going to do?"

"We're going to the pokémon musical." Selene looked at him with a non-understanding expression, though it was pretty hard to distinguish as it was very close to her neutral expression. "It's a sort of theatre where pokémon perform a play and sing and dance."

She thought about it. "Do you mean they pretend to be other people?"

"Yeah, I guess you could put it like that."

"I like that idea. Can I come?"

"Sure. Don't pinch my shoulder so hard, though."

As they entered the large hall of the theatre, Lucius said: "What, we're not taking this loony ol' chicken with us, are we?"

Though Boreas knew Selene was slightly dotty, he couldn't help defending her. She had saved him, after all, and he liked her better than Lucius anyway. "Shut up, Lucius. If you don't like it, stay outside."

"I'm not a loony," said Selene.

"You sure look like one to me," Lucius retorted.

"The one difference between myself and a loony is that I'm not mad."

Then Lucius did something that Boreas had never seen him do: he gave a friendly smile. It was very small and gone after a single moment, but it was unmistakably there. "Hmpf," he snorted, "crazy bird."

–

An hour later they all came back into the theatre's hall, enthusiastically talking about the musical. The story had been about a disfigured Weavile with a beautiful voice who falls in love with a Gardevoir singing in the pokémon musical. Some of the songs had been very good, and the last one was still stuck in Boreas' head. Though the humans couldn't even understand what the pokémon on the stage were saying, they all seemed to like it. Boreas had even seen Cheren enjoy himself. The black-haired human was now arguing with Bianca again, though.

"...And another thing, I thought it was very unrealistic that the pokémon constantly started singing."

Though Cheren was obviously just kidding, Bianca responded seriously. "But, but, that's the whole _point_ of a musical!"

"Nevertheless, it is completely unrealistic. You don't see our pokémon singing, do you?"

With a cheeky grin, Toxica began singing: "In sleep he sang to me,

in dreams he came...

that voice which calls to me,

and speaks my name.

And do I dream again?

For now I find,

the Phantom of the Opera is there...

inside my mind!"

Though the song sounded not half as good in her squeaky, cockney-accented voice as when the Gardevoir sang it in the musical, Boreas couldn't help joining in: "Sing once again with me,

our strange duet!

My power over you-"

"Yes, yes, I get it, thank you," Cheren interrupted, "but Bianca, I still say it's unrealistic and silly."

As they continued arguing, Boreas stopped listening to them. After a while Selene spoke for the first time since the show had begun. "I liked it. The pokémon would pretend to be people they weren't and say things they didn't really mean. Some of them even pretended to be humans! I wonder what that feels like."

They were about to find out, as Black and Bianca signed their pokémon up for an upcoming musical about the musketeer trio. Boreas was immediately enthusiastic; his mother had told him stories about the musketeers when he was a cub, and he had loved them. So he found himself hoping to be cast in an important role in the casting room. All the pokémon who were going to be in the musical were lined up as a Smeargle who introduced himself as Grigor walked past them. Though most of the pokémon in the line-up would end up in the choir or with a minor role, all except Selene hoped for a major role.

When the Smeargle walked by Boreas he stopped and looked him in the face for a while, making him rather uncomfortable. "Hmm... Intelligent, piercing eyes; somewhat scruffy, Giratina-may-care look; mildly attractive... I think we may have found our Keldeo!"

"Scruffy?" Boreas exclaimed, "What do- wait, Keldeo? I get to play Keldeo?"

"We'll have to see how good your acting and singing is, first. But if that's fine, then you probably can."

The Smeargle moved on, but Octa, standing next to Boreas stopped him: "And I suppose you'll wish me to play Cobalion. With my impeccable, noble manners, general excellence, proper pronunciation, and bearing, I couldn't be better for the role."

"Not really, but maybe I know a better role for you."

"Ah, Virizion, then. Yes, between my wit, charm, and good looks I suppose I would make an excellent Virizion as well."

–

A few weeks later, Boreas stood in the spotlight as he sneaked over the stage, a big, feathered hat on his head and his headtails drenched with water and then frozen to form the single horn/sword of Keldeo. A tense silence hung over the theatre, and though they had rehearsed this at least a hundred times and he knew what was coming, he knew he was going to startle.

Suddenly a second spotlight turned on as a single chord was played, showing Octa dressed in a long, black, Victorian coat, a top hat, and a monocle. "Keldeo!" he boomed, "I have been expecting you!"

Boreas looked up to the balcony where Octa was standing. "Count Rochefort, your reign ends here!"

Octa laughed a haughty, chilling laugh as the light spread, showing off the high, Gothic décor as Octa slowly and haughtily descended the stairs. "My dear boy, and who is going to end my reign? Your friends are currently battling my pokémon outside, as you are no doubt aware, and their skill vastly surpassed yours."

"_Your_ pokémon? You stole them all!"

"I took," Octa carefully articulated, "what was rightfully mine. And no one, especially a" he sniffed haughtily as he paused dramatically, "_commoner_ like you can stop me."

"We'll see about that," Boreas grinned as he saluted Octa.

Octa returned the combat salute and drew a Leaf Blade. "So we shall. En guarde!"

The friends crossed their swords as the choir began to sing a battle song. Since Octa was wielding the Leaf Blade with his hands while Boreas was using the frozen headtails that were attached to his head, Boreas was at quite the disadvantage. He had asked if he couldn't just make a strong icicle like a sword and wield it with one of his front paws, but the Smeargle had been adamant: everyone knew the musketeers fight using their horns as swords, so Boreas would just have to manage.

"Soon," Octa threatened as he slashed with his blade, "you'll be wearing my sword like a shish kebab!"

That was not in the script, and the audience wouldn't be able to hear it anyway with the music drowning it out, but if Octa wanted to have some improvised fun with their fight, Boreas would happily join in. "First, you'd better stop waving it like a feather duster!" he responded, nearly hitting Octa with a lunge that forced Octa to jump back with a startled face. "Arceus preserve me, you look like something that's died!"

Octa jumped over Boreas with an impressive salto, swung around, and nearly stabbed him in the back. "The only way you shall be preserved is in formaldehyde!" Octa tried a more aggressive stance, forcing Boreas to take a step back or be hit. "My attacks have left entire islands depopulated!"

It really was a shame the audience couldn't hear their insults, Boreas mused. "With your breath, I'm sure they all suffocated!" he retorted, blocking Octa's attacks and making dangerous ripostes that forced Octa to take several steps onto the stairs. "Nobody has ever drawn blood from me, and nobody ever will!"

"Do you run _that_ fast, boy?" Octa retorted. Now the song was reaching its climax, though, which meant that they had to stop improvising their duel and actually had to move on to the choreographed part.

Octa feinted, getting in a few hits that Boreas made look as if he could parry them only barely, and then it looked as if he was going to lose, as if Octa's next strike would finish him off, but he parried the hit and made a surprising riposte that looked as if it penetrated Octa's heart (though it was actually under his arm) just as the music reached its climax. He withdrew the sword from under Octa's arm, and the Servine clasped his hands to his heart with an agonised expression, actually making the packets of tamato ketchup hidden in his clothes tear open, making it look as if he'd actually been mortally wounded. With overly dramatic acting, Octa fell to the ground as Boreas began singing his part of the song.

"That was fun," Octa whispered behind him, still playing dead, "we should try fencing more often, my dear fellow."

–

AUTHOR'S NOTES: The method Boreas uses to determine the time actually works, both at day and at night (though it is a lot easier to find out where the Sun is at day, of course). You have to correct for your latitude compared to the centre of your timezone and for daylight saving time, though. But if you take those into consideration you can always find out how late it is if you know where the Sun is and where north is. Alternatively, you can find north if you know the time and where the Sun is. Or you can find the Sun if you know the time and where north is, but the Sun usually isn't that hard to find on account of it being pretty bright and all.


	27. The Great Warrior

Chapter Twenty-Seven: The Great Warrior

Storms raged across Unova throughout November. Every single day fierce winds would howl through Nimbasa, tearing off roofs, uprooting trees, causing blackouts, and generally making the streets a place people didn't want to be. Water as cold as ice, occasionally intermixed with hail, poured down from the sky and made unprotected hands and faces feel frozen after just a few minutes. Rumours that Tornadus and Thundurus had declared war on civilisation were soon abound. After the third week of storms and a couple of gruesome railroad disasters, the Unovan trains were closed down until further notice, meaning Black, Cheren, and Bianca couldn't even train on the Battle Subway any more. They would have challenged Elesa then, but she had no time for it between her job as model and her volunteer work to help combat the many blackouts the storms caused.

The stormy weather was affecting all of Black's pokémon: all except Boreas were completely miserable and depressed in the constant icy rains and were very grumpy and quiet. Boreas actually liked the cold and thought the constant howling winds that seemed to slice straight through the flesh of others and freeze their bones were, in a certain way, delightful and awe-inspiring, as were the constant rolling clouds and the lightning. He didn't like the rain, though, as it drenched him like everyone else. But what was even worse was that he was stuck in the pokécenter. He hated staying in one place for too long, and it was even worse with it being a single building. He often went outside, of course, but the rain would drench him and he had to watch out for things being blown around by the wind. That didn't get him out of Nimbasa, though, something which he was really longing for. Whenever groceries needed to be bought, Boreas would happily get them, as it was better than to be stuck in the pokécenter with his friends while tensions ran higher and higher.

They had also been taking care of Selene. The Murkrow didn't see any problem with flying through the storm for some reason, and had ended up with several broken bones after being blown into a wall. After that, she was still convinced flying through the storm was a good idea, and no amount of logic or injuries could convince her otherwise. So for the weeks after that they had made sure she stayed inside the pokécenter and kept a close eye on her, though she wanted to go outside.

One day, Boreas was fighting the storm with Bianca to get groceries. They had tried letting Boreas get them on his own earlier, but the human clerks' inability to understand him had proved too much of an obstacle, so the humans would now take turns going with him. Bianca was wearing a lengthy raincoat that made the most infernal noises as the storm rattled it. An umbrella might've helped, but every umbrellas in the city had long been destroyed by the mighty winds and they were now usually flying around town like a swarm of metal-and-plastic insects occupying the city, giving the impression that they had gone feral. Boreas found the wind's howling through his fur and ears sort of pleasant. The streaming rain was another matter, though, and he tried to stay in Bianca's wake to keep at least a bit dry. When they finally reached the store, the human and the fox were both exhausted from fighting the fierce winds, and Bianca's face was red from the ice-cold rain. They began picking up what they needed, when they overheard two men talking in another isle.

"...And apparently he defeated Louis before his pokémon even got a single hit in."

"But that's incredible, how did he do that?"

"Beats me. Apparently the guy was just standing around by the stadium as if the world wasn't coming to an end all around him, and he challenged Louis and all kinds of other trainers to battles. Well, you know Louis, he wouldn't refuse a challenge if his life depended on it, but he was completely steamrolled."

"Must've been a pokémon master."

"That's what they say, yeah. He uses some incredibly powerful fighting types, apparently."

"Y'know, if the weather wasn't this awful, I might seek him out. I'd love to test myself against a real pokémon master."

"Heh, rather you than me. I don't want my precious Cleffa punched to bits."

As the two men started chatting about other things, Bianca and Boreas looked each other in the eye, having the same thought. They rushed out of the store, nearly forgetting to pay, and ran back to the pokécenter, dodging a few umbrellas on the way back.

–

"You forgot half the groceries!" Cheren snapped.

"I know, just listen to what I have to say, okay?" Bianca said, taking off her coat. The coat had barely helped against the storm, as she was almost as soaked as Boreas was.

Apparently Cheren noticed this too, as Boreas saw his eyes dart down for a moment before replying. "What is it now?"

"There's a pokémon master in town, and he's a really great master of the fighting type, and he's challenging people at the stadium and he defeated a guy named Louis!"

That got Cheren and Black's attention, and they wanted to know everything from Bianca. Boreas wondered something, so he asked Octa. "Octa, I wonder what a fighting type can really do. Apart from kicking and punching, I mean. They just seem at a bit of a disadvantage to other types like us, who can do stuff like making ultra-cold beams of coldness, spit fire, enter the opponent's mind, be plated with steel, and other useful things like that."

"You are quite right, my dear fellow. Their fighting style is entirely based on simple physical strength, meaning they are at quite a disadvantage. Especially considering they usually aren't too bright either. When a fighting type encounters a problem it can't solve with violence, it usually tries to solve it with even more violence."

"Perhaps," interjected Capella, "if you two are not too busy feeling superior, you'll consider that this is a fighting pokémon _master_. If he became a pokémon master with the fighting type, that on its own shows he is a force to be reckoned with."

Octa looked embarrassed. "Mmmyes, quite. I was just about to say that. Besides, my dear fellow, you should be extra careful regardless."

"Why?"

"Because your type is at a disadvantage to fighting types."

"It is? Why?"

"Well, ice is a brittle substance, which can be fractured by a powerful punch."

"Right, I suppose ice is, but I'm not made of ice. I'm made of carbon, just like you."

"Quite, but you are still an ice type, my dear fellow."

"Yeah, I am, but since I'm not a Glalie or a Cryogonal, why would ice's brittleness be a concern to me? I'm not made of ice, I just use it for attacks, like most other ice types."

"Um... Yes, but... Quite, yet... Oh, look, the humans have put on raincoats, it seems we are going outside."

They asked Nurse Death to keep Selene with her and left the pokécenter. They battled through the raging storm, dodging feral umbrellas flying around. While the piercing cold combination of temperatures just above freezing, streaming rain, and sharp winds didn't bother Boreas too much, he saw all his friends hated it. He had once tried making it less horrible for them by creating Icy Winds in the direction opposite to the storm's, but that had turned out counterproductive: not only was the storm far too powerful to be silenced by him, but the opposing air streams actually fed the winds and made them very erratic, and it cooled the air down even further, turning the rainstorm into a frigid hailstorm. So Boreas didn't try that again this time and just let the storm be.

When they finally reached the stadium, they saw a lone figure stand in front of it. He wore a long white cloak that covered his entire body, including his head, but even with the cloak it was obvious he was a very large, hefty man. He didn't seem to care about the storm, though he had to be drenched and freezing. As they approached the man, a pair of other humans, a male and a female, jumped out of an alley. One of them carried a microphone and the other a camera.

"Hi," shouted the one with the microphone against the storm, "we're from Unova News Network! Are you going to challenge the mysterious pokémon master?"

"Yeah!" Black shouted back.

"Which one of you goes first?"

"I am!" said Black.

Bianca and Cheren didn't seem to mind. "Great! Do you mind if we film your battle? It may end up on the news, people are longing for news that isn't about the storms and the damage they're causing!"

"If you can film in this weather, that's okay with me!"

"Okay, would you mind introducing yourself and your pokémon and how you caught them real quickly?"

"Fine! I'm Black from Nuvema Town. This is Octa, I received him from Professor Juniper as a birthday present; this is Boreas, I rescued him as an Eevee when Zangeese attacked him; I caught Lucius here on Route 3; and Toxica and Capella just sort of joined my party out of their own choice. Now can I get to battling?"

"Yes! Show the world an amazing battle!"

Black walked to the cloaked figure.

"Do you wish to challenge me?" a voice so loud and deep it could easily have been mistaken for thunder boomed.

"Yes!"

The voiced roared an inarticulate battle cry as the figure entered a battle position and threw a pokéball. A vaguely humanoid form with a big red nose holding two massive stone pillars appeared. The Conkeldurr's muscles bulged like steel cables in its massive arms.

"Toxica," Black commanded, "you go first!"

The Oddish ran at the Conkeldurr, giving the impression of an ant attacking a tank. As she neared him, she released a cloud of powder, but the rain immediately flushed the spores out of the air. Before Toxica could react, Conkeldurr swung one of its pillars with a move so fast it seemed impossible, hitting her like a golfer hitting the ball, and she was launched off her feet at incredible speed.

Fortunately, Octa managed to catch her, and they exchanged some words before she fainted in his arms. For a moment Boreas though Octa was blushing, but then he realised it was just because of the ice cold rain and wind. Black cursed. "Capella, try to paralyse it!"

Capella didn't listen to Black, however. Instead the gem on her forehead glowed and the storm, instead of raging at random, suddenly obeyed her will and directed all its might, rain, wind, feral umbrellas, and assorted debris, at Conkeldurr. The fighting type was enveloped by the raging storm's energy concentrated in a single point. However, it was obvious from Capella's face that this cost her immense amounts of energy and that she couldn't keep it up long.

The two huge pillars suddenly flew from the concentrated storm cloud, and one of them landed on Capella and shattered into a thousand pieces, instantly knocking her out and returning the storm to its own chaotic will. Black rescued the heavily bloodied and unconscious Dratini from the mass of rubble that had been created around her.

"How many pokémon are we using anyway?" he asked his opponent.

"Use as many as you want," the voice responded, "you won't defeat Conkeldurr."

"We'll see about that," said Black, "Octa, you're up next!"

Unlike Toxica, Capella seemed to have done some damage to Conkeldurr: several of the umbrellas had given it mean cuts and it looked a bit hypothermic. Perhaps more importantly, it had thrown and destroyed its pillars, so its main weapon was gone.

Capella's attack had forced the Conkeldurr to actually move. So far it hadn't even taken a step, but now it walked at Octa threateningly, seeming to tower over the Servine, even though it wasn't actually that much taller. It was far more massive and muscular, though, and now seemed to radiate with pure might. Octa drew the long, sharp, rapier-like leaf that he used for his Leaf Blade attacks.

Suddenly Conkeldurr showed off its deceptive speed as it jumped at Octa with a pounce. It could easily have crushed him if he hadn't run at Conkeldurr at the same moment and jumped onto its back. He ran two steps over the flying Conkeldurr's back while dragging the point of his Leaf Blade across it and jumped off behind it with a jump that seemed more flashy than was necessary.

Conkeldurr jumped to its feet immediately with a roar of pain as the metre-long cut across its back began bleeding. Octa was going to say something, but he had to swallow his words as he pressed himself against the ground to duck under a fist like a cannonball aimed for his head. The Conkeldurr tried to step on him, but Octa rolled under its foot, jumped to his feet, and stabbed his opponent in the back of the thigh.

Conkeldurr responded with a mighty roar as it turned around while swinging its arm and backhanding Octa in the face. Octa was launched by the hand's impact, made a big parabola through the air, and landed with an awfully hard impact on the pavement.

"Boreas, take over!" Black commanded as he rushed to help Octa.

Boreas had been thinking of some way to beat his opponent, and had come to the conclusion that Capella had had the right idea when she took control of the storm. It was the only thing around that was even close to the power level of the Conkeldurr, so it made sense to try to use it against it. Of course, Boreas couldn't take control of the storm like Capella, nor would he have even tried to control something so mighty. Instead, he just cooled it down a degree or twenty while still letting it rage to its own will. The storm was already near zero, and cooling it down further only increased its ferocity while the massive raindrops froze and became large hailstones. Between wind speeds now approaching a hurricane's, temperatures far below zero, and hailstones the size of golf balls being blown around at very dangerous speeds, the storm was getting to be very painful for all present, except Boreas to whom it was merely uncomfortable.

Conkeldurr, very red with hypothermia and bruises from the hailstones, pounced Boreas, whom could only barely dodge by increasing the wind speed even further with an Icy Wind to make it so powerful that when he jumped, the wind carried him for nearly ten metres. He immediately followed up with more Icy Winds around the Conkeldurr, catching the creature in a flesh-freezing hurricane of ice and air. Boreas found he was thoroughly enjoying himself. After weeks of putting up with the storms and having everyone go grumpy and depressed because of them, he was now actually getting to make the storm even more powerful. He almost felt as if he and the storm were allies, even friends, though he was quickly reminded of reality when the sharp, frosty skeleton of an umbrella nearly hit his face.

Conkeldurr, now red all over, ran at him. He once again used the winds to get away, but the furious creature kept following him, and soon the unpredictable winds turned against Boreas. Conkeldurr ran at him, fists ready to punch him into submission, and Boreas saw there was no escape from his speedy opponent. Suddenly he had an idea and to his great surprise it happened exactly as he pictured it: all the cold the storm had created in his fur and a lot of cold inside of him all moved instantly to a single point on his forehead and shot off in a hyper-cold beam, shooting between Conkeldurr's legs into the puddle he was about to step into. The puddle instantly froze so that when Conkeldurr stepped on it to punch Boreas, it slipped and fell onto its face (and nearly on Boreas).

"I-Ice Beam," Boreas stammered in surprise. He immediately jumped on his enemy's back and tried to do the same thing again. This time he hadn't created the Ice Beam out of pure anger, but had actually done it more or less consciously, so he found he could actually do it again this time. The cold drew to a single point and fired another Ice Beam, this time at the top of the long, bleeding cut Octa had left on Conkeldurr's back, right between the shoulder blades. The creature howled in pain and rolled over, slapping Boreas off him with an impact that knocked all air and nearly all sense out of the Glaceon. He was launched into the air and his ribs felt so sore they might've been broken. Boreas flew through the icy cold sky and saw the ground rapidly approaching. Quickly, he increased the wind he was in right now to increase his horizontal speed as he Ice Beamed his landing spot. He landed on frozen puddles, so instead of coming to a painfully abrupt halt on the pavement underneath he kept all his speed as he graciously landed on ice. He managed to turn around and launched himself into the air again with the winds. It was almost as if he could fly now: he would soar over his opponent on the storm winds and graciously land on the ground he had covered with ice first, all the while Ice Beaming his opponent.

Between the wounds Capella and Octa had caused and the fierce cold Boreas was subjecting him to, it was a surprise Conkeldurr didn't give up earlier. After having more and more trouble running after Boreas, eventually his trainer returned him to his pokéball.

"Impressive," said his trainer, "No-one in this city has managed to do that yet." A Mienshao appeared from thin air. Boreas was going to use the same technique, but suddenly his body screamed in pain as his new opponent punched him at the speed of sound. The Conkeldurr had been amazingly fast, but this was a whole different kind of speed. He couldn't even see the Mienshao moving, just felt its incredibly rapid fists punch him dozens of times in a single second. His insides felt like they were punched into stew. After a few moments of severe pain, he blacked out.

–

FEEDBACK: Okami Saphira: Q: I really like this fanfic, I just found it this morning and I have been reading it since then. The way you write this story is just anazing! I look forward for more updates!

A: Wow, that must've taken quite a while. I think this story has around 120 pages by now, so I feel very flattered to hear that.

UNKNOWN: Q: Well, finally got the time to leave a review on the story I've been following for a long time. This story is almost perfect so far, I don't know why you don't get more feedback. One of my only two complaints ( I hate having to give negative feedback, but too late ) is the title name. I know it isn't important but I feel this story would have more readers if there was a more creative title. But I know a good fic when I see one, so that's how I got here. The only other one is that I don't think this story would be at its best if half the story were just memories from Boreas. I do hope that the story told from Boreas lasts much longer. We know more about the past than the present now. On the other hand though, I love the kind of humor you put on here and Boreas' sometimes childishness, making the story relatable and suitable for people on this site. Good job so far, and keep on going!

A: Thanks for the feedback. Don't worry, I don't mind negative feedback (well, as long as it's not along the lines of "ur stroey iz ghey lolz") as it helps improve things. I see what you mean about the title. The title was a last-minute addition to chapter one, and it's largely because I just couldn't think of a good title, and still can't. If you have a good idea for a title, be sure to let me know. I likely won't change it, because that will mean some people who read it but don't have it on alert or fav will likely lose track of it, but maybe I will. On deviantart I had to shorten the title (because of title length limits), and at first I shortened it to just "Unova" there. At some point I decided to shorten it to "Adventures of a Glaceon" instead, and I immediately began getting loads more views and comments, so that shows the title is indeed important.

"The only other one is that I don't think this story would be at its best if half the story were just memories from Boreas." - I've read this sentence a couple of times, and am still not sure what it means. Whatever it is, it is very weirdly worded. I'm not sure if you're hoping the flashback will last most of the story or if you're hoping it will end soon so the story can continue in the present. Either way, I'll tell you that the flashback will reach its ending pretty soon (not sure of the exact chapter I've planned it for, but it's certainly before chapter 35) and then there are still more than 40 chapters to go, which will mostly be set in the present and have all kinds of stuff happening.

Thanks again for the review!


	28. Electrifying Battle at High Speed

Chapter Twenty-Eight: Electrifying Battle at High Speed

Boreas felt strangely wistful as they passed a pile of destroyed umbrellas. In the week since the endless storms had, in fact, ended, the city had begun a large clean-up action to clear the mess the storms had left. To make recycling easier, the different kinds of rubbish were sorted into piles of their own kind. When the storms had first ended and the Sun had shown itself for the first time in weeks, everyone, including Boreas, had been delighted. However, the Sun had quickly shown itself to be a sorry excuse for a lava lamp in this time of year: it would rise very late in the south east, make a tiny hop along the sky, and disappeared under the horizon very early in the south west. During the short time it was in the sky, it would stick close to the southern horizon, looking pitiful compared to its majestic summer self and providing little light and barely any heat. In fact it was possible to look straight into it with little discomfort. Not that Boreas complained, he actually liked the Sun a long better like this.

Though the sky was completely clear in the days that followed, it was even colder than during the storm. But today, the sky was clouded again. These weren't the dark, rolling storm clouds that had vexed Unova for weeks, though, but thick white clouds that bathed the world in a strange, orange light unlike anything Boreas had ever seen.

Boreas shuddered as he saw the Ferris wheel in the distance and turned his mind to the upcoming Gym battle. Now that he had finally learnt Ice Beam during the battle with the anonymous pokémon master, he was fairly confident they would stand a good chance against Elesa. Octa's skills with the Leaf Blade would be of great use as well.

When they reached the Gym, Black stopped for a moment and looked as if he was going to address his pokémon, then shivered in the cold air and hurried inside instead.

Elesa was waiting for them. "Finally we get to battle again, I've been waiting for this rematch but I won't give that Bolt Badge easily, by the way you and your pokémon certainly look more powerful, I wonder if you can defeat me or if the fantastic speed will leave you dizzy again?"

Black and Elesa sat on the chairs as the roller coaster lurched into motion. "We'll each use three pokémon," said Elesa, "switching out counts as a forfeit, no items allowed, Volta, you go first!"

As Elesa sent out her Emolga Boreas stepped forward, already knowing what Black was going to order. Volta the Emolga launched herself into the air and flew through the Gym on her own. The electric pouches on her cheeks flared and she shot a big ball of electricity into the cart. As the ball approached, Boreas ran and jumped over the cart's edge, avoiding the Thunderbolt. In mid-air, he shot an Ice Beam, freezing the left rail before landing on it. When he landed with his feet on the ice-covered rail, he began sliding rapidly, continually firing more Ice Beams on the track in front of him to make sure it would be covered in ice to slide on as he skied over it. Behind him he could hear the crackling sound as the cart's wheels shattered the ice covering on the rail, but it fell farther behind as Boreas was going faster than the cart.

As he skied over the rail at amazing speed, he almost forgot his opponent. Volta had been utterly amazed at Boreas' action and unable to zap him at first, but now she was coming to her senses and pursuing him. She hit the tracks with several charges, but Boreas didn't feel anything as the ice between his feet and the metal track was a very poor conductor. He was getting the hang of this now, and also finding he could easily increase or decrease his speed by hitting the track with Ice Beams more or less often and so lowering or increasing the friction.

A moment after Ice Beaming the track again, he turned his head to the Emolga who was flying to his left, charging another attack, and shot an Ice Beam at her. He didn't have time to see the result, as he already felt friction on his feet increasing, but he heard a loud squeak of pain.

He took another look and saw the Emolga plummet down helplessly, unable to fly because the Ice Beam had hit her right in the chest and frozen her pectoral muscles. She disappeared as Elesa returned her to her pokéball; a flash of light in the cart showed another pokémon being switched in as Boreas reached an uphill part of the track. Fortunately, his speed was great enough that he slid up it, but he had to Ice Beam the tracks continually to do so. When he reached the top of the uphill part, he began regaining the speed he had lost.

Before he could take a look at his new opponent, he felt a sharp yank on one of his legs and a painful shock went through him at the same moment. A thin, sticky, sparking wire had caught around his leg and more of the same kind of wire were being shot at him by the Galvantula. He sped up further and hit it with a few Ice Beams, but unlike his squirrelly ally Galvantula didn't have such easily exploitable weak spots. Another electrifying wire ended up around his tail, and then one around his neck.

Suddenly Boreas' momentum became a horrid disadvantage as the wire around his neck nearly garrotted him. More wires stuck to him, making his muscles convulse with the shocks they received, and pulling him off the tracks. After a fall, he hung from the wires sticking to him and began to black out from the pain of the increasing shocks and the garrotting wire around his neck. He looked between the spots dancing in front of his eyes and saw he was hanging from Galvantula by Electroweb, whom was hanging from the coaster by a single wire. Trying his hardest to keep his shocked muscles under control, he fired two Ice Beams: one at the wire Galvantula was hanging from and one at its bum. The first Ice Beam severed the wire, sending them both into free-fall, and the second disabled his opponents spinnerets.

Without his weight making the wire around his neck strangle him, Boreas could breathe freely. He formed a fierce Icy Wind to blow both free-falling combatants to a lower piece of the track, and then created Powder Snow there to soften his impact. The impact on the snow still knocked the air out of him, but Galvantula, who hadn't had such a soft landing, looked much worse.

The spider jumped on top of him and sunk his mandibles into Boreas' flesh, sending massive shocks through his body while Boreas used the opportunity to fire a lengthy Ice Beam directly into his face. Shocking and freezing each other, both in severe pain, it was only a matter of who would give up first. It turned out to be Galvantula, as his shocks became weaker and weaker and then completely stopped. Boreas carefully pushed the spider off of him, cringing in pain as the two mandibles left the deep wounds they had created. Elesa was at the moment far too distant to see that her pokémon had fainted, so Boreas used the time to start skiing on the tracks again and built up some speed. He was wounded, tired, and still sparkling with electricity, but perhaps he could tire the final opponent so it would be easier for the next pokémon to beat.

Since he was very low in the Gym, it wasn't easy to start moving rapidly again, but eventually he managed to build up a lot of speed. As he skied over the roller coaster tracks again, he heard the sound of hoof beats behind him. A Zebstrika was rapidly catching up, running at incredible speed over the black platform the tracks were resting on. Boreas tried to hit it with Ice Beams, but when he tried it would form a lightning spark right in the way of the Ice Beam, parrying the attack. A moment later it was running next to him, sending the same sparks arcing through Boreas, who countered by enveloping both of them in an icy cloud of frostiness and Ice Beaming his opponent's legs, trying to make it trip.

But it was too nimble, its legs easily dodging Boreas' Ice Beams, so he used them on its body instead. Then it stopped sparking him, and both were engulfed in flames. Boreas howled in pain as the horrifyingly warm flames embraced him, circling around and searing. He jumped off the tracks, away from his opponent and the flames, and landed on a far-away piece of track thanks to his great speed. A moment later, he heard the heavy hoof beat of Zebstrika next to him as it completed the same jump. He saw something that gave him an idea, but he was going to have to endure the Flame Charge for a while.

Burning flames enveloped him once again. He didn't even try to hit his opponent now, instead resolving to use his powers to keep himself as cool as possible and to combat the flames. The track rapidly curved upwards, and the platform curved along with it. It went steeper and steeper, then vertical, and only centrifugal force kept the zebra and the fox from falling out of the loop. When they were upside-down there was a terrifying moment when Boreas's feet left the track, and for that single moment he was sure he'd fall and break his neck. Then his feet touched the loop again as it curved down, and moments later they moved horizontally again.

Boreas realised timing would be vital to his plan and glimpsed between the searing flames embracing him to time it right. He mentally counted down, then took a big jump. He heard Zebstrika follow him and smirked as he neared another part of the track. A moment before landing, he created a fierce Icy Wind that blew him just aside from the tracks. He fell into the black depths under it as the confused Zebstrika landed on the tracks. And was promptly hit by the cart coming the other way.

Boreas landed relatively softly on the cushioned Gym floor under the roller coaster. After a moment, Boreas realised he'd won the battle on his own and cheered.

–

A few minutes later, as they left the Gym, the entire team was cheering for him and praising him. Basking in their adulation, Boreas didn't even notice the world outside had changed completely until he'd taken a few steps outside. Everything was a bright white now, not just the clouds, as it was all covered in a thin layer of snow. The snow was rapidly getting thicker as more fell from the sky. Boreas was amazed and delighted. He had, of course, seen snow before, but only snow he had made himself.

–

_Present_

"...To see it snowing naturally was pretty amazing."

It was late evening by now, the sky had gone black and littered with hundreds of stars. Only the smallest moon was up, so it was very dark; but Boreas didn't mind, as he and Aqua were lying very close to each other and holding paws. Boreas felt incredibly happy and incredibly in love. Butterfrees flew around in his stomach next to the fish they'd caught earlier that evening. Or rather, Aqua had caught fish while Boreas splashed around clumsily in the water getting nowhere close to the figh. Fortunately she had shared the fish she had caught with him.

"D'you know what's even more amazing?" Aqua asked, "you, defeating a Gym Leader entirely on your own! That's awesome. Unless, of course, you were just bragging?"

"No, every words I said was the truth. I was amazed by it myself, actually, I had never expected that. The rest of the team was amazed too, I was their hero for days to come."

For a while they just sat there enjoying each other's company, but then Aqua stood up. "Well, it's getting late, so I guess it's time to go."

Boreas didn't want to go. So far, he'd had one of the greatest days of his life and he didn't want it to end. "But... What about the rest of my story? We're nearing the end, so it won't take that long any more."

"That's all the more reason not to tell it now, it'll give us an excuse to meet again tomorrow," Aqua said, making Boreas' heart jump with joy, "Unless you don't want to, of course."

"No, no, no," Boreas quickly assured her, "I do want to meet you tomorrow. I'd love to."

"Great, see you then!" He saw a flash of movement in the dark and heard splashing in the water. He dreamily thought about how great the day had been. Spending the whole day with Aqua, talking to her, flirting with her, tickling her... He sighed as he remembered it. After a few minutes a worrying thought surfaced, though: _Now, how am I going to get back?_

The rocks the beach was located between were far too steep to climb, and he certainly couldn't swim all the way home. "Aqua?" he called, "Are you still here? I need some help!"

No answer. In that case, Boreas figured he'd just have to swim and try to find a way up the banks as soon as possible. He walked into the frigid water, blacker than the night itself, and began swimming along with the current. After a few seconds in the water, he suddenly felt something brush by his feet, and wondered what kind of horrible water creature was going to eat him. _Calm down,_ he told himself, _it was probably nothing worse than a Magikarp or a Goldeen._

Suddenly something grabbed his leg and pulled it down. Blind panic grabbed a hold of Boreas as he began struggling like a madman to escape. Then he suddenly felt a pinch on his left buttock and calmed down. "Aqua? That's you, isn't it?"

A shapely silhouette surfaced next to him. "Aww, how'd you know it was me?"

"Because you also goosed me while we were catching fish."

"I told you, a fish bit you."

"Once maybe, but twice? You're as guilty as a puppy sitting next to a pile of poo. Anyway, that wasn't funny, you scared me half to death!"

"I'm sorry, it was just too funny not to do that."

"Just help me swim back, okay?"

"Aww, can wittle Boweas not swim fow himself?" she said in a mocking kiddie voice.

"C'mon, you know I'm a worthless swimmer."

"What's the magic word?"

"Please, can you help me swim back?"

"Okay. Hold on tight."

She came close enough and Boreas put his arms around her. Feeling her so close to him, a wave of affection washed over him and he immediately forgave her mean prank. He let his head rest on her shoulder as he began stroking her ears. He felt dizzy with love and almost began kissing her neck, but she said: "Stop. At least, for now. That's all very distracting, and we'll end up swimming into a rock if you keep it up."

They swam on in silence as Boreas stopped distracting her, just enjoying the physical contact instead. They reached Driftveil far too soon for Boreas' taste. When they reached the shallow water by the pier they had met at that morning, Boreas' feet touched the ground and he let go of Aqua.

"Well, see you tomorrow," said Aqua as she began swimming off.

"Aqua, wait!" Boreas stopped her.

"Hmm?" she turned around to face him. With the city's dim ambient light illuminating her face and her eyes reflecting the stars, she looked more gorgeous than she ever had. Boreas knew he had to say it now or his head would explode.

"I'm..." he hesitated, then drew a breath and continued, "I'm in love with you, Aqua. You're the kindest, most lovely, charming, awesome girl I've ever met. You're the most pleasant company I've ever been in, and you make me feel warm and dizzy just by thinking of you. When you touch me, it's like..." he struggled to find the right word and gave up, "I'm sorry. I just can't express it in words, because words that describe what I feel for you just don't exist."

Aqua had slowly been approaching him closer and closer while he talked; her face was very close to his now. "Try..." she whispered, "expressing it without words."

Boreas decided to do so. He closed the last bit of distance between their faces, interlocking their lips in a passionate kiss. He closed his eyes in delight. It was as if all the happiness and joy he had ever felt was repeated five times within a single moment. The warm feeling of love filled his entire body as if he had his own private Sun burning within. After who knows how long, their lips slowly parted as they still sat in the shallow water embracing each other. They didn't say a word for minutes. Then Aqua whispered: "Yes, I feel the same way." She slipped away from Boreas' arms as she disappeared under water.

–

FEEDBACK: fractalman: Q: "Feral umbrellas indeed! :-0

...in other news, scientists report the spontaneous creation of a new pokemon named *static*, the frozen-umbrella pokemon."

A: You know, I've been wondering when there's going to be an umbrella pokémon since Gold and Silver. I mean, we have pokémon based on garbage bags, for crying out loud.


	29. The Chapter Without a Title

Part Five: Where the Past Meets the Present

Chapter Twenty-Nine: The Chapter Without a Title

Boreas sat in the shallow water in a blissful daze. He had no idea how long he sat there and not a single thought went through his mind. He just stared at the stars' reflection in the water, still feeling the wonderful feeling of Aqua's soft lips caressing his. His heart pounded like a drum in his chest and he was happier than a mouse in a cheese factory. Happier, in fact, than he had ever been before.

After an unknown period of time, he finally reacted: he began laughing. A merry, happy, loud laugh at nothing in particular. Still laughing, he lay down and was surprised when water suddenly washed over his face. In fact, he noticed he was sitting in water.

"How'd this get here?" he exclaimed in surprise. Then he suddenly felt really stupid. "Oh, yeah."

He felt like an idiot, but didn't care as he was a blissfully happy idiot. He stood up and walked up the shore. He couldn't contain his happiness and started skipping like a little girl instead of walking. As he skipped through the city, he saw how incredibly beautiful the world was. The stars gleamed, the houses and street tiles had beautiful geometric shapes, the street lights´ light brightened his mood even further. Everything he saw, even a wad of chewing gum stuck to the street, seemed gorgeous to him, though none of it even came close to Aqua.

He was filled with joy at everything, and began singing out loud as he skipped on: "Don't stop me now,

Don't stop me,

'Cause I'm having a good time, having a good time!

I'm a shooting star leaping through the sky,

like a tiger defying the laws of gravity!"

He randomly hugged a street light as he skipped on, "I'm a racing car passing by like Lady Godiva!

I'm gonna go, go, go, there's no stopping me!

I'm burning through the sky, yeah!"

He skipped into the pokécenter, still singing. "Two hundred degrees, that's why they call me mr. Fahrenheit!

I'm travelling at the speed of light, I wanna make a supersonic man out of you!"

He stopped in front of Octa, whose left eyebrow seemed to be trying to escape off his face. "Quite..." said Octa.

Boreas was overjoyed to see his friend again and immediately embraced him. "Octa! My dear friend, I'm so glad to see you again!"

"Um... Yes, quite..." Octa stammered, "I say, are you drunk, my dear fellow?"

"Only with love, Octa! I kissed her! She kissed me! We snogged, osculated, smooched, made out! Whatever you want to call it, the result is the same: we kissed." He sighed. "I love this planet."

"Quite, you can let go of me now."

He did so and sat down, sighing in love, "D'you know why I love this planet so much? Because I share it with her!"

"It sounds like you had quite the pleasant day then, my dear fellow?"

"Pleasant?" Boreas scoffed, "it was by far the happiest day of my life. Oh, Aqua, Aqua, Aqua, I love each one of your sixteen tiny toes!"

Octa smiled. "Truly, as the Bard wrote, "Love is a smoke rais'd with the fume of sighs;

Being purg'd, a fire sparkling in a lover's eyes;

Being vex'd, a sea nourish'd with lovers' tears:

What is it else? a madness most discreet,

A choking gall and a preserving sweet," but alas, my dear fellow, I fear I must darken your bright day with a piece of bad news: Black is quite angry with you."

Boreas didn't even feel the least bit troubled by it, "Is he?"

"Yes, he is. You see, 'twas his intention to spend the day training for our approaching Gym battle, and he was quite displeased by your absence."

"Too bad, I guess. Where's he now?"

"Sleeping, as is the rest of the team. 'Tis quite late, you see. In fact, 'tis so late you might soon say 'tis quite early. I decided to stay awake and read in order to have a chance to welcome you back."

"Cheers, that was nice of you. Anyway, did I tell you we kissed yet?"

"I believe you might have mentioned it at some point."

"Well, it was delightful. And you know what's almost as great? I'm meeting her again tomorrow!"

"I'm afraid that may be a slight problem. Black's intention is to use tomorrow for training as well, and I really don't think you should disappoint him on two successive days."

Boreas' mind weighed the needs of his human friend against the chance to spend the whole day with his lovely Vaporeon girlfriend. He didn't need to hesitate about his choice for a second. "Well, I guess I'll have to disappoint him anyway."

"I had really rather you didn't. After all, you are still a member of our team, and our battle against Clay takes place a week from now. Besides, the day is long enough for both training and dalliance with your dearly cherished paramour. You could train with us in the morning and afternoon and spend the evening with your leman."

Boreas had a better idea himself. "Okay, I'll train with you until late afternoon. I'll just need to tell that to Aqua tomorrow morning and ask her to come back later." _Actually, I'm just going to leave with her tomorrow and face your wrath in the evening._

"This morning, you mean. 'Tis already past midnight, my dear fellow. Speaking of, I am off to bed, and would suggest you do the same."

Boreas laughed. "You think I could sleep after today?"

"I wouldn't know. But I don't see what else you could do for the whole night, so pip pip!"

Boreas and Octa were walking through the corridor of the pokécenter's second floor, when Boreas' heart suddenly overran with joy and he just couldn't keep it inside any more: "I just kissed the most beautiful girl in the entire world!"

"Yes, you mentioned that. Now hush, my dear fellow, decent people are attempting to sleep."

–

Boreas awoke slowly from the latest in a series of delightful dreams. He had half a mind of going back to sleep and try to get back into the dream, but then he realised the real world was even better than dreams because he would get to spend an entire day with Aqua again.

As he had breakfast with his friends and received some minor talking to from Black, he felt a bit guilty about lying to them all. Not nearly guilty enough to change his plans, though. He now mainly found himself nervous about the prospect of meeting Aqua and barely ate a single bite. After a while he excused himself to go tell Aqua to meet him in the evening.

When he reached the pier, he saw she was already there waiting for him, lying on her side on the shore, stretched out and a paw on her wide hip. She smiled at him and arched an eyebrow as his mind just blanked completely and he stood in place, unable to move. He was aware he was staring at her with his mouth slightly hanging open. Any guilt he might have felt about lying to Octa and the others was melted away like snow in front of a burning-hot blue Sun.

Aqua's smile broadened when she saw the effect she had on Boreas, making him fall even further under her spell. He tried to walk and talk but found his body had forgotten how to do either of those things. He moved his midriff, contracting his lungs into unleashing a blast of air through his windpipe. He moved his vocal cords when the air reached them, and then used his tongue and mouth to further shape the words. "H-hi. You look..." Boreas tried to think of a word that described her right now, but eventually settled for the understatement "Gorgeous."

He clumsily walked in her direction. "Thanks," said Aqua, "I know I've already said this, but blushing like that makes you look very cute."

Boreas tried to say several things, but couldn't manage to spit any of it, except "..." out. _Calm down,_ he thought, _I should be more at ease with her now, not less!_

"What's the matter?" asked Aqua as she got up and closed the distance between them, "lost your tongue?"

She kissed him, immediately melting Boreas' nervousness down into pure happiness. As their lips parted, she said: "No, it's still there."

"Sorry," Boreas giggled, "you just knocked the words right out of me. Let's go somewhere."

Aqua questioningly arched an eyebrow. "Where did you have in mind?"

"What about the forest north of the city?"

"Okay," she said in her most charming voice.

As they walked through the city, talking about nothing much at all, Boreas noticed the way they were going would pass by the pokécenter and stopped. "We should take an other way. You see, I told Octa I would train for the Gym battle with him and the rest of the team today, so I'd rather they don't see me sneaking away with you."

"Well, why don't we combine the two?" Aqua asked.

"What d'you mean?"

"I'll come with you and train with you. We can have a bite to eat first and then I can be your sparring partner."

"I don't know..." said Boreas, "I don't want to hurt you."

Aqua laughed a deliciously mirthful laugh. "What makes you think _I_'m the one you should be worried about? But don't worry, I'll go easy on you."

"Simple type advantage won't help you defeat me, love. What makes you think you can beat me?"

"For one, I'm much faster." She poked Boreas' side and sprinted off.

"Hey!" Boreas pursued her, "I'll get you!"

She was surprisingly fast for an aquatic creature on land, yet Boreas caught up to her as they passed in front of the pokécenter. He pounced her tail as soon as she was within reach, grabbing it and colliding with her as she came to an immediate halt. They rolled over a few times because of their momentum, and Aqua ended up in a sitting position with Boreas' head in her lap.

At that moment, the pokécenter's door opened. "Ah, my dear fellow, I see you're- Please, my dear fellow, do you think it wise to do this in public? Continue your amorous activities in a more private setting like a civilised person, I beg you."

They both stood up, blushing heavily. "It's not what it looks like," said Boreas.

"Yeah," Aqua reassured him, "I just joined Boreas to help with his training."

Octa arched an eyebrow. "I have never heard it call that before."

"Look," Boreas pointed out, "she just came here to be my sparring partner."

"Yes, I can see she wants to be your "sparring partner.""

"I invited her to come."

"Ah ha," Octa's grin broadened

"To come _here_ to eat and train."

"Eating, you say?"

"Stop it!" Boreas snapped, "You're misunderstanding me on purpose."

"Misunderstanding you? I think you are making yourself transparently clear."

Boreas had had more than enough of Octa. "Blow me."

"Ask her."

–

A while later they were training on a field of grass. Black had tried to capture Aqua once again, but this time a simple threatening look from Boreas had put the idea out of his mind. As much as Boreas would like Aqua to join the team, he certainly didn't want to have her forced into it.

Now he stood opposite Aqua, feeling more ready to kiss her than to attack her. Aqua didn't seem any more ready to fight.

"Pip pip!" Octa, training against Capella, said, "let's see what attacks you can do. Besides the obvious Attract, I mean."

"And Lovely Kiss," Boreas added with a grin.

"Fine, you want to see what I can do?" Aqua asked. A concentrated wave washed over the grassy field to Boreas. He tried to get out of the way, but the wave flowed over him, doubled back, gripped him, and began gyring around him like a maelstrom standing up from the ground. He expected to sink at any moment, but though he was stuck in the middle of the vortex it held his head above the water. He tried to move, but the rapid current swirling around him forced his limbs close to his body. He struggled against the vortex's powerful grip, but couldn't move.

Aqua's head surfaced just in front of him, grinning and apparently unaffected by the raging currents. "Well?" she asked, talking with her mouth a bit further open than was necessary and her tongue seeming to beckon Boreas, "who's in danger of hurting whom now?"

Boreas moved in for the kiss, bringing his head closer to hers, but found she was _just_ outside his reach. He could come to within five centimetres of her, but no matter how he struggled against the water, that was as far as he got. He suddenly understood what Tantalus felt like. Aqua grinned. "Cruel and unusual," Boreas complained.

The current stopped and the column of water that gripped Boreas immediately fell to the ground with him in it. The remnants of the wave passed through a bush of flowers, and Boreas immediately chilled it down, freezing the flowers and snapping them off with an Icy Wind. The beautiful ice flowers scattered around Aqua.

"Watch out," Boreas said with a grin, "they're sharp."

As Aqua was more or less stunned in amazement at the beautiful ice flowers lying around her, Boreas decided to lower her defences with Tail Whip. He turned around and wagged his tail at her as she began humming a song. Boreas stopped in embarrassment as he realised it was "shake your booty."

"Aww," Aqua whined as he stopped, "I liked that move."

She formed another wave and trapped Boreas like she had earlier. But when her pretty head popped up out of the water, Boreas was prepared for it: he froze part of the water behind him, thus shielding him from the current for a moment. He used that moment well: he put his arms around Aqua and held her tightly as their lips found each others'. In the tiny, distant corner of his mind that was not occupied with the supreme joy of kissing Aqua, he was vaguely aware that the column of water had disappeared and they were now lying on the ground.

"I say," Octa sighed, "you two really do have a one-track mind, don't you?"

Boreas paid him no attention even after they stopped kissing. "Jealous, Octa?" Lucius scoffed, "Don't worry, I'm sure it's just a phase he's going through, I know he loves you more."

"Be quiet," said Octa.

"Yeah, I'm sure of it. Just- Aargh!" he yelped as Selene knocked him over with a Wing Attack, "you crazy bird, can't you see I was talking?"

As Lucius and Selene continued their training, Boreas had stood up off Aqua and helped her to her feet. Aqua stretched her back, and Boreas just couldn't keep his eyes off her as she arched her gorgeous body. For what was the fourth time that day already, Boreas felt as if he was melting.

He was snapped out of his mesmerised stare by a sharp poke in his ribs. "Avert your eyes, my dear fellow," mumbled Octa, "'tis impolite to stare. Besides, I would like to have a word with you in private."

After excusing themselves and walked a few streets away, Boreas asked what the matter was.

"I want to warn you," said Octa.

"About what?"

"About Aqua. No, hear me out. I want to implore you not to allow love to regulate your thinking. 'Tis never wise to let your emotions think for you, but love is especially dangerous, because 'tis such a powerful emotion. What's more, I'm not sure I like Aqua."

While Boreas figured Octa was at least partially right about the first thing, he didn't like where the conversation was going. "What d'you mean?" he growled.

"I mean she acts..." he paused to look for a word. "Improper. Unladylike."

Boreas laughed. "I know what you mean. You mean because she takes initiative and shows me she likes me as much as I like her. But that's one of the many things I really like about her, I'd rather have her than a girl who acts what you would consider "ladylike." But don't worry about the other thing. You know me, I'm not stupid."

"I know you aren't, but you are... Careless. Impulsive, chaotic, unwise. I merely implore you to be cautious, my dear fellow, because I know what you're like when you're not enamoured, and I know being smitten with another shall only increase those qualities."

"Fine, fine, I'll be careful, now let's go back."

–

FEEDBACK: UNKNOWN: Q: I don't recall Elesa having a Galvantula. Original.

A: I found it very silly that they gave her two Emolgas when she could have Galvantula, Eelektrik, or Derpfisk instead. Maybe they thought those pokémon just wouldn't suit her or something.

Q: Other generations of Pokes in Unova before E4? Very original. I like it. You've made this humble reader a happy camper.

A: I don't believe in national pokédeces and like the older generations too much to restrict myself to just Unova's pokémon.


	30. The Road to Driftveil

Chapter Thirty: The Road to Driftveil

Aqua hummed contently as Boreas gently rubbed her stomach. They were in a clearing in the forest where they had gone to watch the Sun set. "You really shouldn't have overeaten so much," said Boreas, "if you had eaten like a normal person, your stomach wouldn't hurt right now."

"I know, I know," said Aqua, "I just wasn't used to there being so much food and not even having to do anything for it., so I couldn't help myself. Normally I have to catch a fish when I'm hungry and am out . Though if I hadn't eaten so much, you wouldn't be rubbing my belly right now, so I'd say it was a pretty good idea, actually."

Boreas chuckled. "Heh, for you, perhaps."

Aqua gave him a sceptical look. "Don't kid yourself, we both know you're enjoying this about as much as I am."

"Yeah, you're right. I do enjoy rubbing your cute little tummy like this."

After a while, Aqua said: "My love, could you tell me the rest of your story while you continue? I'm curious to the last part."

"Sure. We wanted to leave Nimbasa quickly after winning the Bolt Badge to go to Driftveil, but because it was now snowing and cold we had to buy winter clothing for all of us first. Well, except for me, of course. I'd say the results were mixed: Octa looked quite good in his long Victorian coat and cloak, and Lucius' leather jacket looked okay, while Capella looked like she was fearing a giant, frilled sock and Toxica looked like an egg in its egg warmer.

When we finally left the city via Route 5, Selene came flying after us and landed on Lucius' shoulder, and though Black tried to tell her she should stay in Nimbasa because she wasn't a member of the team and it was dangerous, she just didn't seem to understand. Or she just played stupid, it's always very hard to tell how much of her strange behaviour is genuine and how much is an act. Anyway, the result was that Black yielded and we had to return to buy her clothes too, but because she chose them herself she ended up in a bizarre abomination that might've started its life a particularly hideous rainbow-coloured cake before it was thrown out of the cake shop for its tacky garishness, hollowed out, and found a new life as a sort of loose poncho-dress-toga-like thing. At least it kept her warm while still allowing her to fly.

Anyway, we soon battled through the icy, snow-covered forest of Route 5...

–

_Past_

"...And soon they battled through the eternal ice fields of Antarctica, a barren wasteland of ice and snow where temperatures are twenty degrees below zero even in summer. Yet the prospect of being the first people ever to reach the South Pole made both expeditions continue their journey through a climate in which exposed flesh can freeze within minutes, a climate where even fire types can't survive long. And the wind always blows at speeds approaching a storm's, for there is not a single tree or building on the entire continent to slow it down. 'Twas perhaps the greatest challenge in all exploration, to cross the harshest, most inhospitable of all continents to reach the southernmost point of the planet."

"I don't know," said Boreas, casually walking on top of the thick layer of snow the others where sinking into with each step, "it sounds like a lovely place to me."

"To you it does, perhaps," Octa spoke, walking on up to his waist in snow. If he hadn't been wearing his warm coat and cloak, he would probably have frozen to death days earlier. "But just imagine the strain on two teams of human and pokémon explorer, none of them ice types. The first part of the journey was the easiest for both teams, as they were not actually on mainland Antarctica yet, but on the Ross ice shelf, an entire sea so bitterly cold it has been completely frozen into a thick ice shelf for millennia. Yet, even though the ice shelf was visually indistinguishable from the main land, the climate is comparatively mild because of the vicinity of liquid water, which can store a lot of heat. There were no mountains on the ice shelf either, as opposed to the main land, where they would have to cross several frozen mountain ranges. In fact-"

"Octa," Capella interrupted, "could you please talk about something else? Something that doesn't involve the polar regions or an entire expedition freezing to death, I mean. It's cold enough on its own."

Boreas thought the frozen, snow-covered forest they travelled through was a paradise, but had stopped mentioning that to his companions as it tended to turn them very grumpy. He seemed to be the only one who liked the wintrous cold. The others all sank into the snow to various depths with each step, while Boreas walked on top of it by locally freezing the snow under his feet with each step into ice so cold it became hard as rock. He had tried helping his friends the same way, but the ice he created this way was so cold it severely hurt their feet.

"Of course," Octa conceded, "you're quite correct; tales of Antarctic exploration are hardly an appropriate subject in these temperatures."

"I wonder," croaked Selene, sitting on Lucius' shoulder, "what happens when you're on the South Pole and you go south."

"Well, one can't," Octa explained. "The South Pole is the southernmost point of the planet, one can only go north from there."

"I know," said Selene, "but what happens if you do go south?"

"'Tis an impossibility, one cannot go south from the South Pole."

"But where do you go if you do?"

"Look, that is an impossibility, for the South Pole is, by it's very definition, the very epitome of southness, the place that one going south always approaches closer by its very definition. Once one has achieved a distance of zero to the pole, i.e. one is on the South Pole itself, it is therefore impossible to approach it even closer, and therefore impossible to go further south. "South of the South Pole" is a meaningless phrase, like "more than a hundred percent chance", "colder than absolute zero", or "before the Big Bang.""

"What's wrong with any of those things?"

"They're-"

Capella interrupted once again. "Really, can we stop talking about the South Pole? Talk about the desert or the Sun, or something else that's warm, please, I'm freezing my scales off."

–

As they walked on, sounds of music and lots of people congregated sounded far away but came constantly closer. Eventually they found out it was a large festival to celebrate the end of the year, with lots of music and performers and fireworks. Black and his pokémon walked amongst the festival goers, enjoying themselves.

Suddenly, an attractive Umbreon said: "Hey, Boreas, long time no see!"

She looked strangely familiar, yet Boreas couldn't remember ever even meeting an Umbreon. "Oh. Hey. It's you... Uh... Great to see you again. It certainly has been a long time. Yes. Remind me, when was the last time we met?"

She laughed. "You don't recognise me, do you? It's me, February!"

Boreas immediately became nervous and felt his heart pound. "Oh, hey, Febby! You... evolved into an Umbreon." _And a pretty one, too!_

"Yeah," she said shyly, "I evolved a month ago, White was real happy about it." She squinted, "oh dear, I wonder who dressed that poor Murkrow up like that..."

A silence fell between them and then Boreas decided he should tell her how he felt about her. It was ridiculous that he was barely even be able to talk to her with nervousness and he decided he was going to take the risk of rejection. "Febby? I... um... I must tell you something."

"Yes?"

"Well, you see, it's like this..." he drew a deep breath. "I like-"

"Oh, hold on!" Febby interrupted him, suddenly wagging her tail in joy, "I want you to meet someone, a new member of White's team!"

An Espeon ran at them, stopped before Febby, and kissed her on the mouth. Boreas felt colder than an Antarctic grave.

"Boreas, this is my boyfriend, Esper. Esper, this is my friend Boreas, the one who was locked up along with me by Team Plasma."

Boreas forced himself to smile, though it looked more like his cheeks were being pulled aside by fishing hooks in them than like a smile. "Oh. Your... Boyfriend. I see. Well. Nice to meet you. Esper."

"Nice to meet you too, dude," Esper returned Boreas' fake smile with a genuine one, making Boreas want to freeze his head into a solid cube of ice, "Febby told me much about you, your friendship really helped her when you were locked up."

"Did. It." Boreas spat out each word like they were cockroaches that had crawled into his mouth.

"So, anyway," piped Febby happily, "what did you want to tell me, Boreas?"

"Oh. Yes. That. I just wanted to tell you... I like the winter. Don't you? I love all this snow and ice, it's delightful."

"Heh, I guess," said Febby, giggling as Esper began nuzzling her ear. Boreas saw her head turn to kiss him, and was pretty sure he would not be able to keep his anger contained this time and would end up trying to murder Esper.

"Boreas!" Capella's kind voice called him, "will you hurry up? We'll be late for that thing with that guy!"

Sighing in relief at the excuse, Boreas quickly said: "Oh, I'm sorry, I have to go right now, see you later!" and walked away with Capella.

"Thanks for the rescue," he said flatly.

"I'm so sorry," Capella said compassionately.

"I should have listened to you last time I saw her."

Capella nodded. "You probably should have." It was a credit to her that she managed to say this without sounding pedantic or wiseassy, merely friendly and compassionate.

"I was just... Too nervous and too afraid she would reject me. I was going to tell her just now but... Well, you saw it."

"I've been in your position myself. I never had the courage to ask my first love either, and for years I kept wondering what she might've said if I had. I'll tell you, simple rejection is far better than that. Not that that is a picnic either."

That made Boreas feel slightly better, strangely. "Do you still wonder about her? About what she might've said?"

Capella thought for a moment before responding. "By now? Only academically, really. At the age we were then, it's unlikely it would've lasted long time even if she liked me too. I also found the torch I carried for her extinguished itself with age and when I fell in love with others."

"Capella? With all the time you had for it, how come you never found a partner?"

"I found several, actually, but I take it you mean the more permanent, happily-ever-after kind. I'm not sure why I never found one. You just tend not to rush these things too much when you have centuries to take care of them, and contrary to what a hundred-and-seven-year-old may seem to you, I'm still young. I mean, for all we know I might meet the one during the lifetimes of your great-great-great-grandchildren."

Boreas smiled, genuinely this time, liking that idea. "I hope you do, and I hope I live to see it. Thanks for talking to me like this, it really makes me feel better. It still hurts, but it's not that bad. If this is lovesickness, I can handle it."

"Are you sure?" The Dratini looked at him with an arched eyebrow, "I always found lovesickness feels like it tears up your insides and makes the world a horrible place. I've been known to smash things in blind rage when I was lovesick."

Boreas found it impossible to imagine the kindly Dratini in a blind rage. "Really? You?"

She nodded. "Just imagine how powerful a broken heart is if it can do that to _me_. All I'm saying is, are you sure you're okay?"

"Yeah. I'm not angry any more; I mean, it's not as if she knew how I felt about her, so I can't really blame her and Esper for liking each other. Besides, there are plenty of fish in the sea. It's a shame I missed my chance, but I can handle it. It feels more like a pretty roughed up and damaged heart than a broken one, actually."

"I see," said Capella. Boreas could tell she didn't really believe him. "Well, if you want to talk about it again, feel free to. Now let's go see if they're doing any decent firework shows here."

–

Black decided to stay at the festival to celebrate the new year. In the two days afterwards, Boreas found he could indeed handle his lovesickness. He felt sullen and a bit sad, and made a point of avoiding Febby and Esper, especially when they were together, but overall it was not that bad.

On 30 December, New Year's Eve, Black and his pokémon were watching a big fireworks display being set up for midnight when they ran into Cheren.

"Cheren," Black greeted him, "I guess it's a small world after all."

"Ah, Black," said Cheren, "great to see you here. Guess what? I defeated Elesa too!"

"So you finally got your stomach- your pokémon strong enough to beat her, eh?"

Noticing the slip, Cheren blushed and frowned. "Yes, I did. And now that we both have a Bolt Badge... Let's test who's stronger, I have a feeling I'm going to win this time!"

–

It was a hard battle, but in the end Black was victorious and their battle had attracted quite a crowd.

"Well, you are strong as usual," said Cheren, "but why can't I win? I'm strong too, by all rights I should be able to defeat you."

Elesa walked out of the crowd, greeting Cheren and Black. "Oh, wow, guys, that was a rousing battle, of course I already knew you were both powerful trainers as you defeated me, by the way it's great to see you again, did you know they were holding the festival here or did you just happen to pass by on the way to Driftveil, which reminds me, I should probably warn you that Clay, Driftveil's Gym Leader, might take some getting used to, but he's really a good guy at heart, though he's a busy man so you'll probably have to make an appointment with him instead of just showing up at his Gym, because odds are he'll be too busy, also he usually dresses like a cowboy, quite funny, though who am I to talk, right, seeing as I regularly wear the weirdest designed clothes for my work, I suppose Clay just likes westerns, I never asked him, really, so this is a cool festival innit, a bit weird to hold an open air festival in December, but then it's not as if New Year's Eve ever falls in July, so anyway, you guys should follow me, there's someone I want you to meet," Elesa blurted out within half a minute.

She led them to a big, orange-haired man in a poncho who was listening to several guitarists playing. "Ah, Elesa," he greeted, "Isn't this festival great? Life should be enjoyed."

"Who's this guy?" asked Cheren.

"Cheren, Black, meet the Unova region's Champion, Alder."

Cheren burst into laughter. "Oh, that's very funny, Elesa. As if the Champion would be wasting his time clowning about in a place like this."

"Um..." said Elesa, "he _is_ actually the Champion, and a master of the bug type."

"Yes, I am," said Alder, standing up, "except for the master of the bug type bit, I actually use whatever pokémon I like best, which just happen to mostly bug types. But you're quite the judgemental young person, aren't you? My name is Alder, and for your information, I'm not clowning about, I'm on a voyage. Pleased to make your acquaintance."

"Um," said Cheren, "I'm Cheren from Nuvema Town, and I'm on a voyage too. To become the Champion."

"Hm," said Alder, "What about you?"

"I'm his friend and rival," explained Black, "I'm on a journey to become the Champion too."

"Travelling with a goal in mind is a commendable thing. What do you intend to do after becoming the Champion?"

"Become even stringer, I suppose," said Cheren. "What else is there other than becoming even stronger? The strongest trainer, that's the Champion."

"I'm not sure," said Black, "I suppose becoming even stronger to defend my title would be necessary, but I wouldn't just want to do that. I would want to get a vacation or something first, and then I would seek something worthwhile to use my power for."

"Hmm," nodded Alder. "Cheren, is becoming stronger alone enough of a goal? Hmm, I'm not trying to say your way of thinking is wrong, but what will you use your power for? Your friend here seems to have an idea, albeit a vague one. But in my travels, I have learned many people to love their pokémon, because I think that is important too, the most important thing of all, even. If there are people like you who pursue strength, there are also those who are happy just to be with pokémon. There are many different people and many different answers. When it comes to what the Champion should be, you and I hold different views, but so be it. Give it some thought."

Cheren considered this. "The Champion is the strongest of the strong, and that's all there is to it. I am a trainer, and I'll prove it by getting stronger and winning battles, even against the Champion." He walked off, leaving Black and Elesa to talk to Alder.

"I say," said a highly pitched voice in a very poorly faked posh accent with an obvious Cockney accent hidden very poorly underneath it, "'tis quite the suhpwise to meet the Champion of all Unover heayah. Who would have evah expected it?"

Boreas looked in surprise at the source of the voice, which turned out to be Toxica. "Hmm?" she said in the same silly accent, "What ah you looking at me foh like that, chap?"

"Why are you talking in that ridiculous accent?" Boreas asked.

"What is youh meaning? Do you pehchance mean my impwoved elocution?"

Boreas sighed. "You're trying to imitate Octa's accent to impress him, aren't you?"

"Shh! Don't say that in front of 'im!" she whispered in her normal accent.

"He hasn't heard anything we said anyway, he's been to busy listening to the guitars and Alder talking to Black and Elesa."

"Oh," Toxica pouted, noticing now that Octa was indeed a few metres away and had his attention turned away from her, "Well, I'm not doing it to impwess him eitheh way, I just pwefeh to be moah eloquent. 'Tis a fohm of self-impwovement, you see."

"You _are_ doing it to impress him, and it's not going to work."

"And why wouldn't it?"

"Because you sound like you're mocking him. Mocking him really, really poorly. I mean, I've met potatoes with more genuine-sounding accents than that. Just give it up, Toxica, he doesn't like you in that way, and he never will."

–

AUTHOR'S NOTES: I skipped the battle with Cheren because we had one in chapter 24 and I really don't want to overdose on the rival battles like the game does.

FEEDBACK: Q: UNKNOWN: "Chapter with no name? Strange, but I think I would also have trouble naming a chapter of a smitten Boreas. I have the strangest feeling that something terrible is about to happen. I mean, the peace can't last that long, can it?"

A: Usually I can at least think of a semi-decent name, or if I can't I can at least think of an amusing alliteration or a bad pun, but in this case nothing entered my mind. And on each of the three sites I post this story I've had a comment saying they expect something terrible to happen soon. Of course, it seems logical after two chapters of things going so stellar for Boreas. Then again, these are the _Surprising_ adventures of a Glaceon in Unova, so who knows? Maybe I'll surprise you all by making the entire rest of the story super happy funtime for Boreas with everything going awesomely. Hey, nothing bad has happened in this chapter yet.

Rttl3zz: Q: When will toxica evolve?i cant wait for octa's reaction to that..

A: At some point in the future :-P . Or maybe the last bit of past we have left to go. You'll see.

Q: But im lost here does octa like toxica?

A: A good question. And one I'm not going to answer yet. But we'll get a possible answer to that question in a few chapters.


	31. The Trouble With Team Plasma

Chapter Thirty-One: The Trouble With Team Plasma

Boreas walked through Driftveil City's smelly industrial parks, letting his thoughts run free. He was actually supposed to be listening for any news about Team Plasma the humans might be discussing, but he had become bored with that days earlier. When they had arrived in Driftveil City, Clay had proven to be as busy as Elesa had said he was, so it took a while before Black even had a chance to talk to him. And when he did, the Gym Leader had conscripted him into looking for Team Plasma by claiming he didn't have a single moment of time for a battle for months to come. But if Driftveil's branch of Team Plasma was caught he wouldn't have to search for them any more, so he would then have time to accept the challenge.

Unfortunately, though Clay claimed they had been very active in Driftveil, Team Plasma now seemed to have gone into hiding and were near-impossible to find. Black had tried asking people about them, but they didn't seem to like it much and he didn't get any information that way. So now his pokémon walked amongst them in the hopes of overhearing something that might help catch Team Plasma. So far without success.

Boreas still couldn't believe he was now a year old. In fact, his birthday had been the day of their arrival in Driftveil. He hadn't even realised it until the evening, when someone happened to mention the date and he remembered 25 January was his birthday. It wasn't until later, after the surprisingly well-done party his friends had thrown him despite having had only a few minutes' notice, that he realised it meant he was now an adult. Which was a bizarre idea, as he didn't feel like an adult at all. In many ways, he still felt like the cub Octa had rescued from the claws of his attackers last spring. He had gone through a lot since then of course, not the least of which was evolving to a Glaceon, and in some ways he realised he _had_ grown up, but still he didn't really feel different.

"Be careful no to pay _too_ much attention, my dear fellow," a voice said.

"Baah!" Boreas exclaimed, "oh, Octa, it's just you. I was paying attention, I've been listening to find clues for hours."

"Yes, and I'm sure you only _pretended_ not to notice me walking next to you for the past minute."

"Um... Of course I noticed- Lucius? What in the name of Ho-Oh's contact lenses happened to you?"

The Houndoom was walking towards them a bit ahead, his fur stained with large amounts of blood, one of his horns broken and several large wounds covering him. Except he wasn't so much walking as dragging himself along, at least one leg broken. Boreas and Octa rushed to support and help him. "Get your hands off of me!" Lucius growled, "do I look like I need your help or something?" Boreas saw he was missing several teeth and bleeding from the mouth.

"No, not at all," sneered Octa, "I regularly walk around soaked with blood, my bones and teeth broken, for pleasure. Now what the devil happened to you?"

"While you two have been wasting time here, Black's been kidnapped!" Lucius snapped, "that's what happened!"

"Kidnapped?" Boreas exclaimed.

"_Kidnapped_?" Lucius imitated in a stupid, shrill voice, "Yeah, by Team Plasma, while you two were wasting your time prancin' around the industrial parks like two ballet dancers!"

It was only because Boreas' concern for Black drowned out his anger that he didn't throw a pawful of sand into Lucius' wounds. "Tell me what happened precisely, and stop with the insults."

"Please delay the interrogation, my dear fellow," Octa said, "Lucius, first we need to get you to the pokécenter."

"Shut up, Smugleaf, I'm fine!" gnarled Lucius.

"Smugleaf?" Octa roared, "do you have any idea how insulting that term is to a member of my noble species?"

"D'you think I would've used it if I didn't, Smugleaf?" Lucius grinned.

"Why, you degraded heap of smelliness-" Octa began.

"Look," Boreas interrupted them, "this is getting us nowhere, let's focus on Black being kidnapped and continue tearing each others' heads off later."

"Quite," Octa said between gritted teeth, "you are quite right of course, my dear fellow. We should all remain calm and rational."

"You're the one who's angry, Smugleaf," said Lucius.

Seeing the effect that insult had on Octa, Boreas quickly said: "Anyway, how did he get kidnapped? Where?"

"I heard some shouting from an alley while I was listening for clues, that's the stupidest plan ever, by the way, and looked to see what was happening, and a dozen Plasma grunts were dragging Black off!"

"Then why didn't you do anything about it?" Octa asked.

"Because I didn't feel like it. I watched them drag him off, then I went to get some ice cream, and to finish the morning off, I decided to see if trains are really as heavy as they say by jumping in front of one, you complete idiot!"

"Um," Octa seemed speechless for a moment, "quite, I should have realised this was the origin of your wounds. I apologise."

"So did you see where they took him?" asked Boreas.

"Yeah, after they ganged up on me and beat me half to death I followed them unconsciously. It's like sleepwalking, except you do it on broken legs and teeth fall out of your mouth. Of course I didn't see where they took him, you moron!"

Boreas tried very hard to remind himself that Lucius was probably acting even more obnoxious than usual because he was worried about Black, ashamed he lost, and in a lot of pain; and that attacking a badly wounded person was not very nice. He managed to get his anger under control, but only barely.

"So why did you fight them if there were so many?" Boreas asked, "if you had just followed them, we would know where Black was."

Lucius scowled. "At least I wasn't wasting my time like you and your boyfriend, pup. Where were you when Black needed you, anyway?"

Boreas had had enough. "Look Lucius, what's it going to be? Are you going to shut up, or am I going to freeze your balls off?"

"Boreas!" Capella's voice exclaimed, signalling her arrival, "don't talk like that, especially to someone wounded! Lucius, you need to get to the pokécenter immediately."

"Don't tell me what to do, you mouldy old earthworm," barked Lucius, making Boreas even more infuriated with him. Fortunately he managed to control himself thanks to the shame he felt after Capella's reaction to his earlier outburst, "the only thing I _need_ right now is to find Selene, so that crazy old chicken can fly around to look for Black from the air."

"Of course, good thinking," said Octa.

"Of course it's good," snapped Lucius, "it's _my_ thinking. Now make yourselves useful while I go to the pokécenter."

–

AUTHOR'S NOTES: On Bulbagarden's Writers' Workshop, where I also post this story, it has been chosen as "fic of the month" for October! For that reason, they did an interview with me about it, which you can read here: bmgf dot bulbagarden dot net/f227/fic-month-october-surprising-adventures-glaceon-unova-119895/

FEEDBACK: Rttl3z: Q: Wow..poor Boreas..i KNEW that was coming...but its nice how capella comforted him..well anyway I really like this story and the characters involved I give you 16000 stars ;-) keep on writing!

A: Thanks. I considered having Octa comfort him, but his "comforting" would probably consist of something along the lines of "keep a stiff upper lip, remain calm, and don't let yourself be fooled by your emotions," which may work for him but would be little help to Boreas. It's interesting, though, how many people on the different places where I post this story all seem to agree that something terrible was going to happen immediately after the blissful chapters 28 and 29.

The Heck: Q: That was one of the more interesting first chapters I have read by far. You've managed to avoid almost all of the cliches that plague many first chapters, like not conflict. I like what you're doing with Boreas and Aqua, they've just met and they already have a interesting dynamic and are likable in their own ways. Also I like the relationship you've already established between Bor and Black in just a few paragraphs. Very good writing and excellent first chapter.

A: Great, thanks. I actually don't really like the first two chapters myself, I consider chapter three onwards far better. Though it is mainly chapter two I don't like, I sort of like chapter one, but not as an a first chapter. But it's great to see people who don't agree with me on that.

Q: Definitively reading this... only 29 chapters to go.

A: Thirty now. Good luck, and have fun.


	32. Venenum in Aura Bibitur

Chapter Thirty-Two: Venenum in Aura Bibitur

Boreas suddenly awoke in the dark room. For some reason, the word "Zinzolin" was stuck in his head like a particularly annoying song. He was pretty sure he'd heard it before somewhere, but couldn't quite remember where, so he tried to go back to sleep. Though it was 4 in the night and he had just awoken from deep sleep, he felt as awake as a caffeine addict at noon. And the word "Zinzolin" kept racing around his brain, trying desperately to find a bell to ring.

Boreas realised how nice it was of Nurse Hate to allow them to keep their room for now, despite Black's disappearance. So far they had had no luck in finding him or Team Plasma, and neither had the police or Clay. Boreas felt very lonely without Black. Because the human couldn't talk to him he often felt like a background object and Boreas often barely realised he was around, but now that he was gone he really felt how attached he had become to his trainer. He noticed the same feeling in all his companions; even Lucius seemed depressed and sad.

_Hey, Zinzolin Enterprises, Inc. is a company that does business in Driftveil... They have a large cold storage facility in the docks..._

Now he knew what "Zinzolin" was. The name must have stuck in his mind because it sounded so silly. At least now it would stop bothering him, he thought, but the word kept hanging around in his head like the extremely drunk patron whose desire to drink even more is in conflict with the bartender's desire to close the bar before morning and get some sleep. Boreas tried to ignore it and go back to sleep, but like the bartender that simply wasn't an option for him. Both the name and the drunkard were far too annoying for that.

Besides, he found he was terribly worried about Black. He could easily guess why Team Plasma had kidnapped him, and Boreas felt at least partially responsible for it. If they hadn't defeated two of the Sages through his trickery, Team Plasma wouldn't have considered Black a threat and wouldn't have bothered him. Of course Boreas knew they would all be dead if it hadn't been for his trickery, but he couldn't help but feel a bit guilty. Black had been gone for four days, anything could've happened to him. Boreas felt his heart burn with raging fury at the thought that he might even be dead. If he was, Boreas swore, he wouldn't stop until every last member of Team Plasma had discovered just how _cold_ revenge could be.

"Derek, the piñata's got a gun..." Selene mumbled in her sleep, "...Stop licking the Marmite jar out and do the dishes, or it will shoot us both..."

He forced himself to breathe slowly and calm down. He wondered if Black had felt the same way when Team Plasma had kidnapped his pokémon in Castelia. Boreas guessed he did, as Black really cared a lot for each of them. They never really talked of course, given Black's spectacular talent for misunderstanding, but an occasional petting and the general good care he took of them showed a lot. Besides, how many trainers let their pokémon walk outside their pokéballs all the time? Black might not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, but he had a very kind heart and was brave. The human was quite a lot kinder and braver than Boreas himself, the Glaceon realised with shame.

Suddenly and without warning, a seemingly random memory echoed in Boreas' mind. N had just told them he was Team Plasma's king, and Boreas and Black were shouting accusations at him. Suddenly he stopped them and said to the two grunts: _"Go now, report to sage Zinzolin, and I'll cover your retreat."_

"I've got it!" Boreas roared.

"It wasn't me!" yelped Toxica, "I don't know who did it, but not me!"

"It's a wedding, not a funeral!" Selene croaked.

"What the crap?" barked Lucius.

"Wah!" yelped Capella.

"Silence, you fool!" Octa shouted, "You'll kill us all! Oh dear, I seem to have been dreaming. What's going on here?"

Before they could get enough of their senses together to start shouting at him and ask why he woke them up in the middle of the night, Boreas scrambled to his feet and blurted out: "Guys, guys, guys, I've got it! I've just had an epiphany!"

Lucius responded: "Don't be so loud you wake us up with it, pup, just clean up your mess quietly and let us sleep."

"An epiphany," Octa explained tiredly, "is an illuminating realisation or discovery, you illiterate barbarian."

"Ooh, I like those," remarked Selene.

"Now, what is it, my dear fellow?" Octa asked, "I do hope 'tis very good, or I shall be forced to become quite cross with you."

"I know where Black is!" Boreas said, turning on the light. It blazed in his eyes as if he was directly looking into the Sun, but he ignored it, "I know where he is! Team Plasma took him to Zinzolin Enterprises, Inc.! It's the name of one of their Sages, N mentioned that, I'll bet the company is just a cover operation for Team Plasma!"

"Hmm," Octa said, "Quite, yes, I do remember N saying that, now that you mention it. It might just be a coincidence, but we should investigate regardless. Jolly good, my dear fellow, at least we have a clue now."

–

"Right," Boreas said as they reached the cold storage, "here's my plan: we run inside, fight our way past any guards, and rescue Black. Let's go!"

"What happens if it's not actually a cover operation for Team Plasma?" Octa asked.

"Then we go outside again and try to find a new clue, let's go!"

"What happens if we encounter resistance?" Octa asked.

"We defeat it."

"What happens if we encounter quite a lot of undefeatably powerful resistance and/or traps?"

Boreas swallowed a lump of fear in his throat. "Then we go out in a blaze of glory. Freeze of glory in my case."

"Good luck," said Lucius, sitting down. "Let me know how it went if I ever see you again."

"What?" seethed Boreas, "aren't you going to help us rescue Black?"

"No, I think I'd rather live another day, pup."

"Coward!" Lucius' behaviour just sickened Boreas, "don't you remember what Black did for us in Castelia? He saved your life!"

"Yeah, he did, so I'm not gonna throw it away."

"Traitor," sneered Boreas, "Black is counting on us."

"Your plan is crap," said Lucius, "we go in and get ourselves killed is more like. Who made you the boss anyway?"

"Gentlemen!" Octa interrupted, "calm down, please. My dear fellow, you have to concede that he has a point, it really isn't much of a plan. If you would just calm down, we could think of something better."

"Okay, okay," Boreas conceded, "what about this then: we sneak in carefully, try our best not to be seen and try to find Black, if he's here at all. If we see any sentry we fight-"

"Try to stay hidden and out of sight?" Octa suggested.

"Okay, that. Everyone agree?"

Everyone, even Lucius, did agree with that plan. But when they tried to get in, they found the large cargo doors locked. And so were the smaller doors for personnel.

"Well," said Capella, "that _is_ a shame. Does anyone have another idea?"

"We could try to pick a lock," suggested Boreas.

"None of us have opposable thumbs, lock picks, nor the skill required," Octa responded.

"We could climb down the chimney," suggested Boreas.

"It's cold storage," sighed Octa, "a chimney would be as useful as an open window in a space station."

"We could break the door down."

"Yes, you truly are a master of stealth and subtlety. Besides, 'tis a storage facility, we can safely assume the doors are powerful enough to withstand any damage we could do to them."

"We could wait for the first worker to arrive and follow them inside."

"That would mean we'd attempt to rescue him at day, while the facility is operative. That significantly lowers our chances. Though it does give me an idea: while the facility is operative, we could sneak inside, hide ourselves, and wait for night to fall."

"Only that'd mean we'd have to wait another day to save him."

"It would, but it seems we don't have much of a choice, my dear fellow."

"Why don't we just use the door?" Selene asked.

"Because it's locked."

"No, it isn't, I unlocked it."

"Wh-" Boreas gasped, "how? What? When? Where? Who? Huh?"

"You really do have a way with words, my dear fellow," said Octa, "but allow me to rephrase that, if I may: did you really unlock it? And how?"

"I picked the lock," said Selene, "like Boreas suggested."

They were all left speechless as Selene flew to the closest personnel door and opened it. The first to recover was Lucius, who laughed jovially. "You crazy bird, you _are_ good for something!"

"You know it!" Selene croaked happily as she landed on his shoulder.

As they entered the cold storage a blast of cold air enveloped them to Boreas' joy and the others' dislike. Inside, the cold storage was a hall that would've given most cathedrals an inferiority complex. There were loads of huge containers that probably contained food. They were stacked in massive towers of containers and left paths between them. Chills ran down Boreas' spine as he realised Black's corpse could be hidden in one of those containers.

Distant footsteps echoed through the huge hall and a flashlight's light could be seen far away. Without saying a word, they all agreed to be very, very quiet. It was immediately obvious that looking for Black would be like looking for a needle in a haystack in a mountain of needles if they had to check every container in cold storage. So they decided to try and find evidence that it was Team Plasma's hideout first.

They sneaked through the dark warehouse as quietly as possible while trying to avoid the guards. It was fortunate that the containers were so large, as it meant they could easily hide when a guard approached.

They crossed the great hall cautiously and slowly without seeing anything interesting. But when they were on the other side of the entrance, they saw there was a large cargo door guarded by two workers. They were wearing thick blue clothes that protected them from the cold and seemed to be half-asleep.

"There," whispered Boreas, "why would those guys be guarding this door in the middle of the night unless it was to prevent a certain someone from escaping?"

"Y-you may be r-right," Capella, shivering with cold, agreed, "w-we'll have t-t-to dispatch them quickly and quietly."

Boreas summoned a powerful gust of frosty air, blowing the two sleepy guards out of balance so they fell over and hit their heads on the door, knocking them out.

They entered the large cargo doors, which led to another cold storage hall. This one was smaller than the other one, but still quite large. They sneaked through it until they saw a lone container guarded by two Team Plasma members in their normal uniforms.

"W-w-w-we should've worn the warm clothing..." one of them muttered.

"S-s-shut up," the other one snapped, "we're Team Plasma! We'll show it by wearing our uniforms."

"B-but the other guys are all wearing warm clothes..."

"Yes, so just think how proud Sage Zinzolin will be that we wore our normal uniforms while guarding the prisoner!"

"I think he'll chew us out for being so stupid instead..."

Since they weren't close enough to any hard surface and too awake to knock them out as easily as the other guards, they would have to be battled.

–

As he took the key to the container from one of the knocked-out guards, Boreas paused for a moment, thinking how bad the security was compared to Bronius' hideout in Castelia. But that was not important, as Boreas opened the container and saw the unconscious, bound form of Black and immediately pounced him with joy. His skin was icy cold, but Black slowly awoke as his bonds were undone.

"I... is that you? Octa? 'Reas? You... came to... rescue... me?" Black mumbled as he hugged them all slowly.

Boreas was so happy to see Black again, but furious to see the wounds the bounds around his wrists and ankles had caused and how badly hypothermic he was. Black tried to stand up and immediately collapsed.

"We'll have to carry him," said Capella, "let's hurry up, I think he'll be fine if we can get him to the pokécenter."

To get the 80 kilo human to the pokécenter when none of them was even half that weight would be quite a chore, but if the six of them worked together they could do it. They began dragging him out of the container. But when they opened the container's door, thirty-two pairs of eyes looked back. They put Black down carefully and formed a protective half-circle around him.

"Leaving so soon, boy?" a French-accented old man with long, greying brown hair and a goatee asked, "I was 'oping you might stick around a bit longer." He was wearing long, purple clothes and seemed to be a sage of Team Plasma.

"Zinzolin..." Black muttered, "...Bastard... let us go."

"You know I can't do that. You 'ave become a thorn in Team Plasma's collective eye and we consider you too dangerous to be allowed to go free."

Boreas growled.

"You 'ave very loyal pokémon. Smart too, to find you 'ere, but not smart enough to realise we 'ave more security measures than meets the eye. It's good, because we can use pokémon like them at the Castle. Grab them!"

As soon as he gave the order, the fifteen Plasma grunts darted forth, and a few of them were immediately struck down by counter-attacks. Zinzolin ordered them to stop, and they did so. He threw six ultra balls, unleashing a Drapion, an Amoonguss, a Garbodor, a Seviper, a Crobat, and a Muk.

"I am a merciful man," said Zinzolin, "and will let all seven of you live if you don't resist. You will go to the castle and get to help work on our majestique future. But if you resist, I'll let my pokémon kill you all, including your master."

"We'll never betray Black!" Capella stated firmly. Four determined nods showed the others' agreement.

"Good luck with that." Lucius suddenly ran at the half-circle of grunts, firing a Dark Pulse at two of them. They fell the ground, screaming and clutching their heads.

"Merde!" cursed Zinzolin, "You and you, after 'im!"

"Dirty coward!" Boreas shouted after him. Though he felt a lot like routing himself, he couldn't leave Black behind.

"Lucius might have scarpered," Toxica said, "but the rest of us _are_ loyal and will defend Black with our lives!"

"If you want to stand in my way," said Zinzolin, "you and your master alike will die. It's a pity, really, but we can't allow evil to prosper. Attaque!"

As the six powerful poison types attacked, the grunts all ran back to leave room for their leader's dangerous pokémon. They began guarding the exits to the cold storage, though, so that wasn't much of an advantage. A large X-shaped bullet raced at Boreas, and he only managed to dodge it by pressing himself to the ground immediately. As it turned in the air, it slowed down for a moment, so Boreas saw it was the Crobat, the razor-sharp edges of its wings covered in an unpleasant-looking liquid. He tried Ice Beaming it, but it was incredibly agile and easily dodged, immediately swooping at him again with wings in a slashing position.

Boreas raised a front paw in a reflex to hold his enemy off, then, in the quarter of a second he had left, first realised that was a stupid idea, and then thought of a way he might use it to his advantage anyway. He unleashed a mighty flare of cold from his palm in that single moment, liquidising a small pocket of air in an instant. The heat of the surrounding air meant the liquid air boiled away immediately with a poof, forming a small shock wave that hit the Crobat and made it lose its speed and aim. It hit the ground clumsily. Boreas immediately followed up with an Ice Beam to its back, but then a sharp pincer grabbed his own back and lifted him up.

It was the Drapion, and the pincers' points felt like sharp knives trying to dig through his skin and flesh. He tried Ice Beaming its face, but the only reaction was that it looked angrier.

"That's not very nice!" Selene landed on Drapion's head and dug her beak into its right eye. It screamed and let go of Boreas, but before he could thank Selene she had been knocked away by the Drapion's tail. His enemy was enraged and missing an eye now, so it followed her.

Boreas pursued the Drapion, but then did a double-take as his eyes drifted over the spot where Black had been and saw he had disappeared. The Seviper was slithering to one of the guarded exits, coiled around a struggling Black. He ran after them immediately, Ice Beaming the Seviper. It turned to face him with a hiss, then bit Black with its large poison teeth. Black stopped struggling immediately and went limp.

"No!" Boreas roared, "I'll kill you for that!"

The snake uncoiled itself from Black. "Relaxxx, It'sss jussst a paralytic, not a poissson," the gigantic snake hissed, "givesss me time to deal with you. It'sss not often prey offersss itssself ssso willingly."

Boreas Ice Beamed his opponent's face and rolled aside to dodge the creature's Poison Tail. He jumped over its lengthy body as it formed a circle around it and Ice Beamed its neck. It turned around rapidly and tried to bite him, but he jumped out of the way quickly.

But then disaster struck: as he tried to dodge a simultaneous attack by both of the Seviper's ends at once, it turned out it was just a feint as he was slammed down by a crushing impact of the snake's middle. He rolled away from the snake's attempt to bite him while he was helpless, but he was just too slow and the left poison tooth scraped him. He felt numbness spread through his body almost immediately. It was strong, but not powerful enough to fully paralyse him, as he'd received only a small scrape. He found that with some difficulty he could still move, but when he tried to create an Ice Beam, it just failed.

He tried easier ice attacks, but he just couldn't do it. It was as if he was an Eevee again, and he did the only thing he could: run for his life. But he ran slowly and clumsily, and was tripped by Seviper's thick tail. He heard the snake's hissing laughter as he tried to stumble back to his feet panicky. Seviper's thick body wrapped around him. Just a single coil was enough to press all four of his paws to his body in a deadlock.

He looked into the eyes of his captor, and to his horror it licked its lips with a forked tongue. He struggled for his life to get up and out of the Seviper's coil.

"No, don't!" he yelped as the Seviper opened its mouth and struck. Suddenly he struggled downwards instead of upwards, and through sheer surprise managed to sink lower into the coil. The Seviper's huge jaws snapped just above his head, where his neck had been a moment earlier.

The Seviper shifted its coils so that he was once again completely wrapped and lifted him up above its head. It opened its massive jaws once again, and this time put his entire rear half into its mouth, his midriff on the smaller teeth of the lower jaw. Boreas knew he had less than a second before he would be bitten in half and struggled desperately to jump out of his enemy's mouth, but his rear legs didn't have any grip on the wet tongue. Instead he used his front legs to push himself back off the teeth. When the mouth snapped closed a moment later, the roof of the mouth hitting his back felt like a bookshelf falling on top of him, but at least he wasn't bitten in half, as the sharp teeth had closed just in front of his nose. The mouth opened and the tongue pushed him back on the row of teeth and pinned him down like an executor forcing his victim's head onto the chopping block. Boreas bit the tongue and as it jerked away in reflex and took Boreas, who was still lying on top of it, with it, away from the teeth.

As the mouth snapped close again, the mouth's roof hit Boreas once again painfully hard. Suddenly a thunderous noise roared through the mouth and the tongue he was lying on moved around. It was a moment before he realised Seviper was speaking, and though its mouth being closed and Boreas lying on top of its tongue didn't exactly improve its articulation, Boreas could make out the words "If that's the way you want it."

To his horror the tongue he was lying on suddenly angled itself, and he began sliding down into the throat on its slippery, saliva-coated surface. "No!" he yelled, grabbing desperately for anything he could hold. He tried to grab one of the molars, but it was just outside his reach. He felt his hind legs enter a vertical tunnel as he slipped further down. "Please!" he begged his enemy as his upper body reached the rear of the tongue, "anything but that!"

The fleshy muscles of the Seviper's oesophagus pressed on him on all sides as he lost sight of the mouth and slid down. They were crushingly powerful, yet did not quite go to the point were they broke his bones. He could feel the dark moist tunnel opening under him and closing above him. He tried desperately to do something to save himself from the horrible fate that awaited him at the end of the tunnel; he clawed and bit at the walls but found them too powerful and too smooth to be penetrated, he tried to make cold and freeze Seviper's throat from the inside, but the poison still inhibited his powers. He tried to jam his paws into opposite sides of the oesophagus, in the desperate hope he could get himself temporarily stuck in the throat, though he was sure the muscles were powerful enough to just break his bones if he obstructed them and force him down further. The disgusting smell of vomit was getting stronger.

He felt his feet enter a liquid and submerge, giving him a curiously tingly sensation. His feet soon touched the bottom of the small, liquid-filled fleshy room and he tried to brace himself against the muscles that forced the rest of him in. But his knees and back were absolutely no match for the oesophagus' muscles and just bent. His lower half was forced in, completely filling the fleshy bag. But more of him kept entering and the room expanded to fit him. Finally his head entered the rancid-smelling stomach, and the oesophagus closed itself behind him despite his best efforts to keep it open.

Though it was as dark as a cave inside the Seviper's, Boreas could feel he was in a curled up, almost foetal position, all his body under the horrible tingling liquid's surface and only his head above it. He could barely move because of the walls pressing on him from all sides. It was very warm and the walls pulsated with the loud, thumping noise of the Seviper's heartbeat. He could barely move at all, fleshy walls pushing on him from all sides.

Though his knowledge of anatomy was sketchy at best, Boreas realised hanging by his tail from the Ferris wheel was paradise compared to what awaited him if he didn't think of something very clever really quickly.

–

AUTHOR'S NOTES: What happened to Boreas at the end may sound far-fetched, but many species of snake swallow their prey whole, actually. And since Seviper is more than 8 metres long, it wouldn't be that hard for one of them to swallow a Glaceon. Cruel, but true.

Also, thank you all for your reviews, I've suddenly started getting quite a lot of them and I love it.

FEEDBACK: fractalman: Q: Congratulations, your story has even made it onto tvtropes.

A: Well, technically that was my own doing. Apparently tvtropes has no problem with someone making a page for their own work, so I figured: "hey, why not?" and made one.

Q: Rttlzz: man oh man..DID NOT see this coming..but why so short of a chapter?and why so cruel to lucius (my bad if I spelt it wrong lol) i just love your story!it makes me get vivid images.

A: It's not _that_ short, actually, about 1300 words, which is a similar length to some early chapters. Though I get your meaning: my chapters are usually around three to four thousand words nowadays, so why is this one so much shorter? The answer is that it was planned much longer, but the first half of it was very boring and I couldn't really get it written down in any interesting way. So I cut most of it and put it in the little recap Boreas thinks about in the beginning. And as for being cruel to Lucius... Well, I guess it was just his turn or something. After all, Boreas has lost his family, been set on fire, had his legs broken, has been hung by his tail for hours, and now he's been eaten alive. I hardly think a little beating up compares to all that in terms of cruelty. Thanks, and I hope the images aren't _too_ vivid, because that might be pretty disgusting with the end of this chapter.

Q: (to chapter 20) The Heck: That was a very sweet chapter, I actually caught myself smiling for Boreas and Aqua. From what he's been through in the story the Glaceon deserves some happiness for all the hardships he's been though.

A: He certainly does deserve a break, and he's getting a particularly happy one in the present right now (I often find myself smiling too when writing the chapters set in the present). Of course, things can only go downhill for him from here, but this blissful break is nice while it lasts.

Q: One thing that had interested me in your story so far is that Pokemon attacks are much more deadly that usually portrayed. This is in no means a negative thing, just a little comment. I did find that there is a surprising amount of character death (Most recently being Thomas who I'm a little mad at you for killing) This is something that I like too however. It's like anything can happen at any time and no one is safe in this world of Pokemon.

A: Sorry for killing Thomas off, I'm afraid it was necessary to give Boreas some closure. And that dangerous effect, that anything could happen, is indeed exactly what I'm going for with the more dangerous attacks, especially with the Seven Sages.

Q: I feel really bad that this great story doesn't get that many reviews so I want to help you out. In my story next chapter of The Dark Chronicles I want to give a little ad for your story. I just want to make sure you are okay with that first before I just so it without your permission.  
>Oh wait, I think I forgot to say good chapter, but I hope it's implied. I think it's about time to fave this masterpiece in the making XD<p>

A: Thanks, and if you want to advertise this story then go right ahead.

Q: Glaceon34: hum, this chapter reminds me they didn't mention Toxica when they practice and Aqua said she will be Boreas partner so that mean Black only have 5 pokemon, so Toxica must have left the team. Personally, i like that, that mean Aqua can join the team and i also think Osca deserve someone better

A: Those are some good question, and there is indeed a reason I didn't mention Toxica. I could answer these questions, but I'll wait for it until chapter 34.


	33. Full Circle

Chapter Thirty-Three: Full Circle

Boreas struggled in panic against the stomach's tight embrace. He had already tried to open both exits with all his strength, but hadn't stood a chance against the powerful muscles. If he pressed hard on one side, he could feel the ground outside, which the Seviper seemed to be slithering over. His breathing was very fast and ragged as he struggled.

_I'm going to die in here! _ He though, _I'M GOING TO DIE IN HERE!_

He tried to get himself under control. _Calm down._

_No, I'm going to be digested alive!_

_Not if I stop panicking and think my way out of here! _He tried to get his rapid shallow breath under control and stopped struggling. He noticed the parts of him that were submerged were getting very itchy, but tried not to scratch because that would probably only make things worse. He realised there was little chance he would manage to get out on his own, so he would have to try and appeal to his enemy's better side, if it had such a thing, for a chance of mercy.

"Hey!" he said loudly, hoping Seviper would be able to hear him, "Seviper, what is your name?"

"None of your busssinesss," a hissing voice sounded far away.

"Uh... Well, hi anyway, my name is Boreas!" Boreas thought that if he could make her see him as a person, rather than prey, maybe she would spit him out, "meeting you is a... let's call it a unique experience."

"Could you be quiet and ssstart sssquirming around again? That ticklesss very nicccely."

"I just want to tell you a bit about myself, if that's okay with you."

"I don't care," hissed Seviper, "I'd rather you were quiet, becaussse I'm going to take a nap to digessst you."

"Are you sure? I mean, I'm not just any prey, I'm a sentient being like you! I have hopes and dreams like you, and have friends like you, and I really, really like to live, like you. So, um, could you please show how good a person you are and spit me out?"

"No."

"Please? Don't you realise how cruel this is? You're sentencing another sentient being to a very slow, painful death. Won't you please let me out? I surrender, so you might as well let me out."

"No! You are nothing but _food_, and I eat food!"

"But I'm not food! Can't we solve this like fellow civilised beings?"

"You tassste like food and you fill my belly, ssso you _are_ food."

"Imagine the pain I'm going to go through!"

"Yesss, they alwaysss sssquirm delightfully for hoursss before finally sssettling down."

"They? You mean you've done this to someone before?"

"Oh yesss. Not often, but occasssionally. Live prey tassstesss very good and isss niccce and sssquirmy."

Boreas was horrified by the thought that others had been eaten alive by this Seviper before, in part because it meant his chances of negotiating his way out were very tiny. "Please let me out? I have a mate and sixteen cubs, what will they ever do without their father? I can already imagine poor... Steven crying for his daddy, and how will little... Marina cope with her father's death? And what about young... uh... Flapdoodle? Can you live with the idea of him growing up without his father? Please don't don't do this, for my kids if not for me."

"That'sss what all prey sssaysss if they get the chanccce."

"Do you want sixteen grown-up Eevees coming after you to avenge their father?"

"If they come after me, if they exssissst at all, I will welcome them. They can go the sssame way as you."

"Spit me out right now! If you don't, my friends will cut you open to rescue me!"

His fleshy prison shook with the snake's laughter. "Your friendsss are either dead or dying. I didn't even bother continuing the battle, becaussse _my_ friendsss were winning ssso overwhelmingly. I've gone outssside, where it'sss warmer."

"Let me out! Don't you see how unbelievably cruel this is?"

"No. Ssshut up."

Desperation was setting in now as Boreas was beginning to see the snake would never let him out. "Please!" he begged, "I... I will turn to your side! I will help you kill my friends if you let me out!"

"Too late."

"Please!" he begged, "I- I don't want to die!"

"Ssshould have thought of that before fighting Team Plasssma."

The horror of the entire situation threatened to overwhelm Boreas as he realised he would never get out. "O-okay," he said glumly. "You win. I will be your prey. If you spit me out, I will let you kill me without resisting. And then you can eat me."

"Why ssshould I ssspit you out? I like you where you are now."

"Because it will be unbelievably painful for me! If you're going to kill and eat me, at least give me a quick death."

"Too late. You ssshould've thought of that before I ssswallowed you. Now let me sssleep."

A last bolt of desperate fury went through Boreas. "You complete evil moster! I will freeze you from the inside once the paralytic wears off!"

"It won't wear off for hoursss."

Boreas tried to make cold in a single, focused point, and found it was incredibly difficult, but with titanic effort managed to. He aimed right for where the heart was, and shot the Ice Beam from his forehead. The snake shook with laughter. "Hey, that ticklesss, do it again!"

But Boreas couldn't. He had managed to overcome the low dosage of paralytic coursing through his veins through sheer force of will, but it had taken him an effort as if he had run a marathon up mount Everest. He just lay in the stomach panting. His final hope had been blown to smithereens. His skin was horribly itchy, and was beginning to sting with pain in several spots already. He realised that soon he would be in similar pain all over, which would grow worse and worse until he would lay there screaming in agony while his skin dissolved slowly. He wondered if he would die once his skin had dissolved, but realised there was little chance of such a quick way out, as the veins in the skin were tiny and would almost immediately close themselves, so he would lose little blood. Once his skin had been digested, the gastric acid would continue its horrifying job as it began work on the tissue underneath. He was pretty sure the major organs were all deep within the body, so he wouldn't die of damage to them. He realised he would probably die of blood loss after many hours of torment when the acid finally began destroying his major arteries.

As the horrifying realisation filled his mind, he sat there hyperventilating in panic. Then he just burst out struggling and screaming. "NO! Please! Kill me quickly, anything but this! I don't want to die like this!"

He stopped the useless struggling and cried. The tears streamed through his fur as he thought of the terrible fate that was already happening to him. He let out a loud wail for himself.

Then a grim, cold determination set in. _Enough self-pity, justified though it is, _he thought. _I have one final option to save myself from that: I'm in a room mostly filled with liquid; I could drown myself._

Drowning himself in the acid would be quite horrible, especially when he couldn't stop his breathing reflex any more and began breathing the acid, but it sure beat being digested alive.

_So this is it, _he thought with complete calmth. _This is how I die. I drown myself inside a Seviper._

He couldn't help but chuckle with gallows humour at the irony of having escaped being eaten by Zangeese only to be eaten by their arch nemesis eleven months later. At least those eleven months had been fun; with the exception of a few days he wouldn't have wanted to miss them for anything. He took a deep breath and prepared to plunge his head under the horrid liquid, but then realised that was a bad idea, as he was trying to give himself a quick death. He breathed out, collected his courage, closed his eyes, and sunk his head under the surface. He felt himself rapidly running out of breath and shifted positions so it would be harder for him to get his head back above the surface if he lost courage.

Suddenly the entire stomach shook violently, he heard Seviper scream in agony, and a light shone past his eyelids. He almost opened his eyes to see what it was, before realising that would be an enormously bad idea. He resurfaced, wiped the acid away from his closed eyes, and opened them as his meaty and dangerous prison moved violently. He couldn't believe his eyes: light was streaming in through a minuscule hole in the wall.

The entire stomach jerked fiercely along with its owner. "That wasss the lassst missstake you ever made!" Seviper roared furiously. "I'll make you sssuffer for that!"

"No!" A furious voice came from outside, "eating Boreas was the last mistake _you_ ever made, you fiendish creature!"

Boreas put his eye to the hole. Though tiny, it was bleeding massively and hard to see through, but his heart jumped with joy as he saw Octa on its other side, with his Leaf Blade drawn and covered in blood, dodging the Seviper's attacks like a master swordsman. He looked far more furious and impressive than Boreas had ever seen, his eyes ablaze with furious determination and a single-minded purpose in every move. "Octa!" Boreas called, "Octa! You're a sight for sore eyes!" he tried to widen the tiny hole that Octa had cut all the way to the Seviper's stomach, but found the flesh was far too strong to tear.

"Boreas, my dear fellow!" Octa said, his voice soaked with joy, "how joyful I am to hear you are still alive." Boreas was thrown away from the hole as the snakes battled each other.

"If you like your friend ssso muccch," Seviper seethed, "you can join him inssside my ssstomach and ssspend your final hoursss being digesssted together! After I bite your limbsss off for what you did!"

"You, milady, are a cruel monstrosity and a barbarian, and do not deserve to have your name capitalised. Your Mephistophelean maliciousness brings a black mark of shame to all those who have the misfortune of sharing a species with you."

"Do you think you ssstand a chanccce againssst me with that puny leaf?"

"I have already demonstrated it has the required attributes to stab into your stomach. That is all I shall need to deliver this planet from your vileness and rescue my dear friend."

Boreas tried to follow the battle by looking through the hole Octa had carved, but most of the time it wasn't facing Octa, and it was too small and too filled with blood to see much anyway.

"Ssstabbing sssomeone in the gut while they're asssleep... Zssinzssolin warned usss our enemiesss were evil, but thisss isss an unexsspected low."

"Do not speak to me about low actions. Your own actions are so low I'd imagine mining companies would be willing to pay you generously to have them mine metals from the Earth's co- ARGH!"

Octa yelped in pain. Boreas pressed his eye to the bloody hole, and saw his friend was backed against a stone wall, bleeding from a large cut and trapped.

"Hehehe," Seviper laughed, "time to join your friend inssside my tummy!"

As Seviper was about to strike, Boreas decided he had to do something. With another outpouring of titanic effort, he created another Ice Beam and fired it straight at the wound Octa had made. Seviper jerked back in pain, and Boreas pushed himself against the stomach's dorsal wall. Just in time, as a razor-sharp Leaf Blade sliced the stomach open lengthwise. As he was flushed out the opened stomach in a flood of gastric acid and blood, he heard Seviper scream. He landed on grass, panting heavily and exhausted, but happy to be out in the air again.

"To leave you to bleed to death would be a merciful thing to do," Octa said grimly, "compared to what you tried to do to Boreas. But I shall be even more merciful and give you the quick death you never had the decency to grant my friend."

Seviper, lying flat on the ground with a large part of its front side cut open, hissed at Octa and tried to bite him.

"We both know a wound of this extent is impossible to survive. You shall bleed out within minutes."

Seviper paused, then exposed its throat to Octa. "Make it quick."

Boreas looked away and heard a loud slash and gargle. He tried to stand up. "Octa... You saved me!"

He was about to hug the Servine when he got to his feet, but thought better of it because he was still drenched in acid and blood. Then Octa surprised him by hugged him instead. "My dear fellow, I almost lost hope when I came outside and saw the bulge at its stomach had stopped moving."

"Both of us," said Boreas, "I was trying to drown myself to avoid being digested alive."

"I apologise for not being here sooner, the guards gave me a bit of trouble."

They stood there embracing each other, when Boreas really began noticing the burning sensation on his skin again. "Octa? I think I'd like to wash myself right now."

Fortunately the cold storage was right next to the river, so they could jump straight in. Underneath Boreas' fur, his skin was red and sore, but it seemed he had escaped with nothing worse than that. The wound Octa had received didn't seem to be poisoned either.

"Now, my dear fellow," said Octa, "I'm afraid we shall have to go back inside to help the others."

Boreas had completely forgotten about the battle in his joy to be alive. "Of course! But, Octa, Seviper poisoned me with something that is inhibiting my powers. I _can_ make Ice Beams, but it's extremely tiring."

"Then you shall just have to use that quick mind of yours instead," Octa said as they ran inside, "It seems the only way we are likely to defeat the remaining five pokémon in the first place."

"Well, I'm glad you don't put me under any pressure," mumbled Boreas.

In the inner part of the cold storage, Boreas found the guards were all knocked out. "Did you do this on your own?"

"Yes. They attempted to obstruct my way as I came to rescue you."

Their friends had clearly lost the battle. Capella was writhing on the ground in agony, every vein in her body clearly visible under her skin in an obvious and disturbing black. Selene was buried in a mound of sludge, heavily struggling against its pull to keep her beak in the air. Toxica, who was missing one of the leaves on her head, was clutched in Drapion's death grip. Black's still body lay were Seviper had left it, so at least _he_ was out of direct danger for the moment.

"Octa, I've got an idea, but it'll probably result in broken bones and/or necks for both of us," said Boreas.

"Do tell. If it can help us save our comrades, we should execute it."

"Look at that high stack of containers there, it looks very unstable. If I climb to the top, I bet I could make it fall over just by shifting the goods in the top container. You would have to draw all five of them to the spot under it and keep them there for as long as possible. Only, there's a large chance either or both of us would get crushed along with them."

Octa nodded. "I shall give you a few minutes to climb to the top, my dear fellow. Be quick about it, for I shan't be able to hold all five of them off very long. And just in case we shan't see one another again, I want you to know it's been an honour to consider you my friend."

Boreas nodded. "It has."

He ran to the unstable stack of containers and saw just how hard it would be to climb them. Each container was three metres high and made of solid, smooth metal. The only grabbing point on the containers was the heavy handle on the doors, which was about halfway up. Each container's front side was in the same direction, so Boreas decided to climb that side of the stack.

He pulled himself up on the handle of the first container, carefully placed his rear legs on it, and stood up on two legs. He still had almost fifty centimetres to go before the top of the container. He jumped up, and just managed to grab the edge. He pulled himself up and managed to stand on the thin ledge the second container left because it wasn't stacked evenly. Six more to go. He was beginning to wonder if Octa might have the easy half of the plan when he saw that the third and fourth container were stacked evenly, without leaving ledges to stand on between them, and that the sixth container even overhung the fifth. But he would tackle those problems when he got to them, first he had to climb the second container.

When he pulled himself up to the door handle halfway on the third container, he took a look down and saw he was very high already. Falling from this height would probably mean breaking bones, even without the containers falling as well. But he also saw that his impression of the fourth container being evenly stacked on the third had been faulty: it left a tiny ledge of only a few centimetres on this side, actually. It would never be enough to stand on, but he could probably hold it and climb to the side of the container. Since the fourth container was placed too far to the right there was a wider ledge on the container's left side. He jumped to the edge, and held on to it. He tried not to look down at the depth of nine metres gaping under him.

Cautiously, he shifted his left paw further to the left, then followed with his right. Like this, he climbed to the left corner, where he could pull himself up to the ledge. He looked for a way to scale the fourth container, but the only place to grab between the top of the container and the ledge was the door handle, which was on the front side, while he was on the container's right side. He realised he would have to make an almost impossible jump to grab the handle. He prepared himself, then made a jump that just allowed him to clear the corner. For one sickening moment he thought he wouldn't make it and would break all his bones on the ground, but with a grunt of pain his left paw managed to grab the handle. He quickly joined with his right. He was getting exhausted after climbing eleven metres and was in desperate need of a rest. While pulling himself up on the handle, he heard Octa's voice echo through the vast hall:

"A good morning to you, brutal fiends. Take a good look at this blood on my Leaf Blade. I'm afraid I shall have to inform you it's your friend the Seviper's. I killed her myself, and I believe I could dispatch all five of you with similar ease."

Boreas wanted to shout at him that it was too early, that he was only halfway, but that would give away the plan, so he just climbed faster despite his exhaustion as he heard the five poison types run after Octa. By the time he scaled the fourth container, the sounds were beginning to approach him. But there was a big problem: since the sixth container overhung the fifth by a good forty centimetres, there would be absolutely no edge to grab once he scaled the fifth. He tried to see if there was any ledge on the sides, but the containers were evenly stacked there. Of course there would be a ledge on the backside of the fifth, but he had no way of getting there. The sounds of running stopped and he heard Octa fight with all five opponents down below him. He climbed on the fifth container's handle and pulled it as hard as he could. To his fortune he found the container wasn't locked and swung open in a wide arc with him still hanging from the handle.

Octa's voice sounded from far down: "I can handle you all, just you wait, though a little help from above would be very convenient if it hurried up!"

He climbed on top of the open door and then lost his balance as it moved under him. He fell down and for one horrifying moment it seemed he would die fifteen metres down, but he managed to grab the handle. Despite his sore muscles' protests he pulled himself up to the top of the door. This time he was more prepared for the door's shiftiness and managed to keep his balance. As he heard Octa yelp in pain, he jumped up to the sixth container's handle. Completely exhausted, he noticed the stack wobbled with each step he took, so poorly balanced was it. He opened the seventh and highest container's door and found it contained heavy crates. He began shoving them all to the door's side of the container and felt the stack heave more and more with each crate he moved. Finally, when he moved the third crate, the entire stack lost its balance. The effect was incredibly scary, as the entire container began falling with him in it.

In freefall, he opened one of the crates and dived into it, landing in a heap of fish. He wanted to close the crate, but then a massive impact made him lose consciousness.

–

A part of Boreas' consciousness returned to him and he opened his eyes. He saw a white roof.

"You okay, pup?"

"Lucius?" he mumbled, "you filthy traitor."

"Hey, no need to thank me or anything, I only got the help that saved your ass and your boyfriend's from the mess you made."

"Octa?" Boreas exclaimed, "is he alright?"

"You nearly killed him with that stunt, but he got lucky and was only lightly crushed."

"Capella? Selene? Toxica? Black?"

"Nurse Hate thinks they'll all recover. Of course, you'd all be dead from either being crushed or poisoned if it wasn't for me and the help I got."

"Lucius, I can't believe I'm saying this, but thank you. And I'm sorry for calling you a coward and a traitor. So what happened to Zinzolin and his pokémon?"

"When we arrived, he was trying to rescue his pokémon from that pile of containers you buried them under. He agreed to come with us as long as his pokémon would get to go free once the pokécenter healed them."

"So he's been arrested?"

"Yeah, he's kept in Clay's Gym because Clay thinks the police aren't strong enough to keep him locked up if Team Plasma comes to save him."

–

On an unseasonally sunny and warm day two weeks later they were on their way to the Gym to make an appointment for a battle with Clay. All of them were fully healed once again. Capella had been the closest to death, she almost hadn't survived the poisoning, and Boreas had broken a number of bones and suffered a bad concussion. But now they were all healthy again, and taking a walk through Driftveil's market on their way to the Gym. All sorts of goods from all over the world were on display.

"Oy, shir," the deep voice of a salesman cried out as they passed his stall, "wanna buy an evolushunary shtone? I've got all kindsh, and they're only 2000 pokémoney! Your pokémon will love them, I'm shure!"

"Sorry," said Black, "but none of my pokémon evolve with a stone."

"But what about your Oddish, shir? When it evolvesh to a Gloom, it can ushe one of my shtonesh to become a Vileplume or a Bellosshom!"

"Shorry-" Black blushed at his inadvertent imitation of the man's speech impediment, "Sorry, but I don't think she wants to evolve at all."

Boreas suddenly became aware of an awful stench of rotting meat that hung in the air. A Gloom ran past him. "Yes I do!" she piped, "Come on, give me the Leaf Stone!"

"Your Oddish jusht evolved, shir."

"Huh? Oh, so she has!"

"Sho do you want a shtone?"

"Yeah, I do!" said Toxica.

"I guess she does. Toxica, do you want to be a Vileplume or a Bellossom?"

"I want to be a Vileplume!" she said, grabbing the Leaf Stone. A bright white light enveloped her, and her body transformed to a Vileplume's. When the light stopped, the flower on her head had become huge and shadowed her face rakishly.

"Hey, I like this," she said happily, "how do I smell?"

Boreas sniffed the air and noticed the rancid odour of rotting meat had disappeared, and instead there was now a quite lovely smell. "Fine."

"Really? How about now?"

Suddenly Boreas began to cough at the disgusting smell. "That's the most disgusting thing I've ever smelt, and that's coming from someone who spent some time inside a Seviper!"

"Hee hee, I can control it now that I'm a Vileplume," Toxica laughed, "and Octa, don't I look lovely now?"

"I... um... can't deny you possess a certain amount of attractiveness."

Suddenly a light tremor shook the ground and flashes of light came from the Gym. Black and his pokémon ran there. When they arrived at the Gym, they saw Clay was standing in the door to his Gym, which was surrounded by Team Plasma, led by Ghetsis, the Sage they had first seen in Accumula.

"Clay," Ghetsis spoke. "It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Ghetsis of Team Plasma's Seven Sages. I've come to pick up my friend who is in your care."

"Ah don't need no thanks," Clay responded, "yer buddy here stole people's pokémon, kidnapped some young'un, an' then tried to kill him an' his pokémon."

"What's this? There seems to be a misunderstanding... We never steal pokémon, and we only free pokémon from wicked people. And if evil people fight against our noble cause, we will occasionally use extreme measures against them."

"Well, that sounds real nice if it's true. Ah may not talk purdy, but at least Ah'm an honest man. You talk real nice, but what yer sayin' kinda sounds like lyin'. So tell me plain, what are ya tryin' to say?"

"Team Plasma's goal is to liberate all pokémon from humans. This is a noble goal, and to achieve such a noble goal, occasionally it can be necessary to do quite unnoble things. All servants of our king are necessary to achieve our goal. Give your prisoner up, or I shall be forced to do quite unnoble things."

Scowling, Clay shouted some things inside, and then Zinzolin walked out the Gym. "Ghetsis... Merci beaucoup."

"Well, Ah reckon you've won this without a fight. Take 'im and git!" Clay said.

"Not so fast!" Black interrupted, "Clay, the odds aren't as bad as you think! Those grunts are pretty poor fighters and Zinzolin's pokémon aren't here. Ghetsis is the only real threat."

Ghetsis laughed, a very unpleasant laugh that sounded as if he'd learned it from a book. "Well, well, the trainer who's been giving us so much trouble. Get out of our way, boy, or I will do what my friends could not and teach you never to interfere with Team Plasma again."

"Ghetsis," said Zinzolin, "please don't. There 'as been enough death already. Three of my pokémon were killed while doing their duty."

"I see, my friend. Very well, in that case, I expect we will all meet again sometime."

"Hold on!" shouted Black, "I haven't agreed to just let you go!"

Ghetsis nodded, and the grunts threw their smoke bombs. Boreas blew away as much of the smoke as possible, but there was an awful lot of it and most kept hanging around. It seemed Plasma was spreading out: most of the grunts were staying here and throwing their pokéballs to fight, while Ghetsis, Zinzolin, and three of the grunts were running off. Boreas couldn't let them get away and ran after them. He heard Black shout behind him:

"The Sages are escaping! Octa, you and the others stay here and get these guys while Boreas and I go after the Sages!"

Boreas ran faster than Team Plasma, but they had a head start and were quite a bit ahead as they ran through the docks. They reached a pier on the river and jumped into a boat that was waiting for them. Boreas cursed and jumped in the water to swim after them as they speeded off, but found out he could barely even stay afloat, let alone keep up with the boat.

Boreas splattered around in the water, feeling like a total failure, when suddenly he was lifted into a passing boat. Black was steering the motor boat. "It's not over yet, Boreas! I hired this boat to pursue them, we may still get them!"

The other boat was far away by now, but this boat was even faster. They pursued Plasma up the river for many kilometres, very slowly approaching the slightly slower boat. Boreas was full of hope that they might still catch them, when they reached the thinner, meandering parts of the river. Now Black's inexperience with steering a boat became very obvious, and they nearly crashed into the riverbanks or rocks several times. Black was forced to take it very slowly, and pretty soon no sign of Plasma remained. Though they kept going for a while, both eventually had to concede that they'd lost Team Plasma and Black turned the boat around.

–

Boreas yawned as he stared off at the passing riverbanks, bored out of his skull. There was absolutely nothing to do on the small motorboat except to be bored. Now that Team Plasma had escaped all exitement had worn off and Boreas really noticed how long and boring the way back to Driftveil was. He could not even play with Black, as he was too busy steering the boat. _Maybe I should just ask him to return me to my pokéball_, Boreas thought, _at least I'll be out of the direct sunlight in there._

Boreas sighed and stared off at the riverbanks again, but this time something caught his eye. They were passing by a small rock in the river, and on the rock a very cute Vaporeon was sunning. Her shapely body was covered in blue fur that sparkled in the Sun, her finned tail was about as long as her body, and when she looked up as the boat passed her Boreas saw she had a lovely face. She smiled and winked at him, and Boreas felt as if his heart had stopped and his blood was boiling. He tried to greet her back in some way, but only managed an awkward nod and something that was supposed to be a charming smile but probably looked more like two fishermen had caught their hooks in each of the corners of his mouth and were now trying to haul him in. It had been a long time since he had last seen another Eevee, let alone one as pretty as this Vaporeon, so Boreas yearned to go talk to her, but the boat had already passed and they were moving away.

"Black, stop the boat, I want to talk to that Vaporeon," Boreas said to Black, who didn't understand a word of it as usual.

"Not now, Boreas," he said, "Let me just focus on steering, or we'll end up on a rock."

"C'mon, just look over there, and you'll get it!" Boreas said, pointing to the Vaporeon.

Unfortunately, Black's back was turned to him while he steered. "If you're hungry just get some berries from my backpack."

Boreas sighed, looked at the shapely Vaporeon again, and jumped off the boat. The water was cold, but that was quite a relief after sitting in the unseasonably warm Sun for a while. He managed to resurface and began swimming clumsily to the rock. Though his swimming was bad, he managed to keep himself afloat and slowly made progress against the river's calm current. After a few minutes of the clumsy swimming while the Vaporeon watched him amused, he finally arrived at he rock and held on to it with his front paws to keep afloat. He looked up into a pair of gorgeous black eyes looking at him expectantly, and realised he had no idea what to say.

"Uh... Hi," he said.

"Hi there," said the Vaporeon, "my name's Aqua."

"Hi, Aqua," Boreas said awkwardly.

"So... Do you have a name?" She asked.

"Uh... Y-yes, it's Bors. No, Boreas!" He kicked himself underwater for making a complete mess of this. He realised that though he had planned to be really charming and witty, he was currently displaying all the charm and wit of a spoilt carrot.

After a highly awkward pause of a few seconds, she said: "So um... Can I help you, Boreas?"

"Uh, well... Y'see... I just wanted to tell you that though my Blizzard is usually powerful enough to freeze a Heatran, with someone as hot as you nearby I couldn't even manage a cooling breeze."

–

AUTHOR'S NOTES: And that's the end of the flashback! I honestly never really expected I would get this far in the story, though I had planned it out. From now on, almost everything will happen in the present and things will rapidly start moving forward.

FEEDBACK: Q: O_o now you warn me..but yeah you're right boreas had it worse..i find it amusing how the beginning of chp32 was depressing until selene's sleep talking involving a pinata with a gun lol that was completely random,though it makes me think about that wubzy pinata I beat yesterday..btw,who's derek?

A: I really do that far too often, killing the mood of serious situations with humour, but I just couldn't resist it. As for Derek... He's the person Selene was talking to in her sleep.


	34. On the Isthmus Between Two Eternities

Chapter Thirty-Four: On the Narrow Isthmus Between Two Troubled Eternities

_Present_

"...And I believe you know the rest of the story already," finished Boreas.

"Yes, I think I might have the rest before," Aqua grinned, "That lovely Vaporeon laughed at our plucky Glaceon hero's cute pick-up line and invited him to join her on the rock, taking pity on his awful swimming and already finding him and his intelligent cyan eyes quite intriguing. They talked and talked, and ended up falling completely in love, and one evening eight days later they were walking through the glade together when our charming and witty Glaceon hero finished telling his tale to her as she listened in awe to the amazing tale being told in his sexy voice."

"Eight days?" asked Boreas, walking closer to her so their sides brushed together, "surely it can't have been only eight days."

"Incredible, isn't it?"

"I can hardly believe I didn't even know who you were nine days ago. Or that I wasn't in love; in hindsight it feels like I wasn't even really alive then."

"I know just what you mean." She approached his face for a kiss, but suddenly water began pouring down from the sky like they were walking under a waterfall.

"Kyogre's crotch," Boreas cursed, "I don't like getting wet... And it's an hour back to the pokécenter."

"I _do_ like getting wet," said Aqua, "but not by rain. I think my burrow is somewhere close by here, though, follow me."

Boreas followed her as she ran. "What d'you mean you _think_ it's here?"

"I never approached it by land before, I always come by the river."

They ran to the riverbanks, though by this point in the river they were five metre high cliffs rather than banks. They ran along the cliffs for a while, until Aqua announced: "This is it. My burrow is down there, by the water."

Boreas peered down. "How are we supposed to get there?"

"I don't know, I told you I've never come this way before. But I guess we could try to climb."

Boreas saw there were indeed footholds and small edges to climb down on. They grabbed each other's paw to help them climb. It was a scary climb, but easier than it looked. Once you were on it it seemed less like descending from a sheer rock face and more like a ladder. They arrived at the bottom of the cliff safely and entered a burrow in it.

Boreas had never really imagined what Aqua's burrow would look like, but he had expected something warm, soft, pleasant and lovely like her. But the only pleasant thing about it seemed to be that it smelt of her. For some reason, it felt like a sad, lonely place, though it looked like any other burrow.

"Well," said Aqua, laying herself down, "now that we're here, I can finally lie down. My feet hurt from all that walking."

Boreas grinned, "What, that short hike tired you out?"

"Short?" Aqua exclaimed, "it was very far."

"It wasn't. Besides, we had breaks at several points, usually when we started kissing and just wouldn't stop." He blushed at the memories.

"It was far for me, I'm not used to walking."

"Aww, poor you..."

"Hey! Don't make fun of me, I don't make fun of your swimming either!"

Boreas arched an eyebrow.

"Okay, I guess I do. But only rarely."

Boreas arched it a bit further.

"Okay, okay, I do that quite a lot and have no real right to complain. But could you massage my feet for me? They're very tired."

Laying down next to her, Boreas did so with pleasure. "So... um... you live here all by yourself?"

"Of course I do!" Aqua said defensively, "you didn't think I was cheating on you, did you?"

"No, of course not, that came out wrong. What I meant to say was that it seems a bit... I dunno... Lonely."

Aqua's face suddenly seemed wistful and sad, but then it disappeared in favour of a smile. "Nah, not at all! I may be alone, but there's a big difference between being alone and being lonely. Besides, I'm only here at night, at day I'm usually outside."

"So what do you do outside?"

"Well, I go to see you."

"Aside from going to me, I mean before you knew me."

Aqua smiled another smile, but it seemed fake. "Oh, you know, I fish... I sun... I... uh... swim? And I... well, I visit my friends of course. Yes, I visit... Marie? And um... Josephine?"

"Are you okay, my love?"

"Of _course_," she said far too jovially, "I-I'm fine."

"No, you aren't," Boreas pointed out, "I can clearly see the sadness you're hiding under that pretty smile. You know you can tell me everything, right?"

"Okay," Aqua said with fake joviality, "so maybe I don't really have that many friends here, and maybe on occasion this burrow can be a tiny bit lonely, but that's no problem."

She paused, and the fake smile on her face disappeared as she looked into Boreas' eyes with great sadness. "Actually, you're right, I feel lonely here quite often."

"It's strange, but I can feel it... I could the moment we entered here. You don't really like this burrow, do you?"

"I didn't say that," she said with more fake joviality, "It can just be a bit lonely, I didn't say I don't like it..." the fake smile disappeared, "but you're right. I don't like this place at all. I-I'm..." to Boreas' surprise, Aqua's voice began breaking up and tears glistened in her lovely eyes, "so-so lonely here. Y-you just can't imagine how lonely this place is."

Boreas wasn't sure what to say, but he stopped massaging her feet and took her in his arms instead to give her some emotional support. "Hey..." he said kindly.

"I-I've been here for six months," the tears were beginning to stream now as her shoulders shocked in his arms, "and I don't even have a s-single friend... Everything he-here is either prey, predator, or just doesn't se-seem to like me-he! I-I hadn't seen a friendly face in months before I met you."

Boreas embraced her tightly. "Oh, my love, I didn't know... I'm sorry. But now you have me, at least."

Aqua cried onto his shoulder. "Bu-but only for now. T-tomorrow, you'll defea-eat Clay and the-then you'll have to lea-eave with Black, and I'll s-still be here, all alone."

"No, dearest," Boreas gently rubbed her back, "it doesn't have to be that way... You could come with me when I leave!"

"N-no, Boreas," Aqua sniffed.

"We could still be together, my love, forever if we like! And you wouldn't be stuck in this lonely burrow any more."

"B-Boreas, I can't," cried Aqua.

"Of course you can, what binds you to this place?"

"W-well, nothing, but-"

"Then join me, love! You would never have to be lonely again. Not only will you be with me, but you'll have friends in the others. I'm sure you'll like them all very well once you get to know them... Well, except for Lucius, you probably won't like him, but that's pretty common."

"No, Boreas, listen to me, I can't join you."

Boreas felt his heart sink while it was pounding against hers. "Why?"

"B-Black," Aqua said sullenly.

"Oh, him? There's nothing to be afraid of, my love, he's-"

"No, I'm not afraid of him. I just- can't travel with a human. Not after what they did."

"Oh, but Black isn't like the humans that hunted you, he's kind and loves his pokémon and he'd never harm you, and will always take good care of you. Black is different."

"I know!" Aqua surprised Boreas by yelling this angrily, "I know. But tha-that doesn't matter. Even if he's a g-great guy, I hate him. Don't you see? I hate all humans. I have to hate them. I can never forgive them for what they did, Boreas, don't you see?"

"But-"

"Listen, my love, I lied to you. When-when I told you how I evolved, it was more or less a made-up story. I wasn't there to fish, I was there to meet someone. A very good friend. In-in fact, he was my lover. Lothario was his name... I loved him, Boreas, and the humans killed him! I-I saw his corpse... That's why I fled, not because the humans would come after me with harpoons, I mercilessly drowned both of them and their pokémon like the miserable insects they were, so who would ever know I was there at all? B-but I just couldn't return... I couldn't announce to his family that he had died, and that it was because he wa-was meeting me... And I couldn't face all the memories; everything would remind me of him. I-I fled down the river wi-without saying goodbye and never even t-t-told anyone what happened to him... My family and friends must think I've been dead for months... I feel like I've been dead for months..."

A pang of jealousy had clouded Boreas' mind for a moment, but he had stuffed it away carefully. Aqua needed his support now, above all. "Oh, my love, I can't imagine how hard that must've been for you," he said gently as he rubbed her back and held her tightly.

"N-no, you can't... At least you had Octa after your parents died... And all kinds of th-things to distract you... I-I've been here for s-six months, all by myself with only painful memories to keep me company. Y-you have no idea how that feels like, and I hope you never will. Do you see now, Boreas, do you see why I can't help but hate Black, even if I know he's not like them?"

Boreas thought of Thomas. "Yes. I do. But- but if you stay here alone, it'll only make things worse. You'll be alone and miserable again, and I couldn't stand the thought of travelling on while you're still here like that."

"It wouldn't be as bad as it was, my love, because now I have the happy memories of you to keep me company besides the sad ones... And I would have hope, hope that I would see you again one day."

"But you would still be miserable, even if you were less miserable than you used to be. There must be a solution... You could travel along with us, but not actually with us. You could travel on your own and just sort of follow the same path, and we could meet every evening, as far away from Black as you'd like."

"I-I don't know... I would have to follow you pretty closely to follow the same path, and it would still feel like travelling with Black. P-please understand, I want to like him, I honestly do, but seeing a human... It reminds me of that horrible day... I can never forget it, or forgive them. And I would have to come close to human-infested places... I know I never showed this, but going into Driftveil with you really hurt and scared me, it's just that at those moments I was able to drown that out with my love for you, but at night I felt horrible about it. But I have another idea: stay with me! Not here in this miserable place, of course, but we could travel together to wherever we'd like! Just you and me and the world."

"Ye-"

Aqua interrupted him, "No, I don't want you to answer this impulsively, because as much as I want to travel with you, I don't want you to become unhappy with a rash decision later on. Just... think about it carefully. I don't want an answer before tomorrow."

"I could never be unhappy if I was with you."

Aqua brought her face in front of Boreas' and smiled while tears still twinkled in her eyes. "Maybe. Maybe being together would be enough, but you'd miss your friends and your ambition, and that might make you very unhappy in the long run... I want you to be happy, I couldn't live with the idea that I made you unhappy, so think about it carefully, okay?"

She kissed him while salty tears continued to stream from her eyes. "But whatever you decide and whatever the future may bring, stay here with me tonight, o-okay? I've never told any of this to anyone, and I-I feel like it's opened all the old, barely healed wounds... I-I just can't face loneliness right now..."

Boreas thought about the Gym battle tomorrow morning, then decided he didn't care if he missed it. If Aqua needed him, he would stay with her for as long as she needed him. "I will," he whispered.

He felt her cry on his shoulder again. "Thank you. I-it must be strange, t-to suddenly see me become so... weak and-and sad and lonely when I must normally seem so strong and jo-jolly and flirtatious..."

"You're not weak. Crying after all that isn't weakness, in fact I'd say it shows how strong you are that you are even sane at all after half a year of being vexed in loneliness by your memories."

"Th-thank you. B-but I want you to know that when I'm jolly and flirty and all that, it's not just a mask or an act or anything, I act like that because of how happy you make me feel.

The way I felt when you jumped out of the boat and began talking to me... I can't describe how glad it made me... It was the first time I had really felt joy in half a year. I mean, when I saw you come by the first time, about an hour earlier, I had thought you were cute, and I had seriously considered swimming after you to talk to you, but I didn't because you were with a human and because I didn't know what to say anyway... So I just checked out your tail and bum as you boated past," (Boreas blushed deeply at this), "and then I went back to sunning, which was sort of my only pleasure in all that time alone... But I found I just couldn't put you out of my mind, that I was wondering what would've happened if I had gone to talk to you. It was very nice to have something non-depressing to think about for a change, really. And then I couldn't believe my luck as I heard a boat pass again and saw you were on it. So I smiled and winked, and tried to collect my courage to go talk to you, and to my surprise and joy you came to me! And, well... the eight days since have been the happiest of my entire life. You made me feel things I haven't felt since Lothario died, Boreas."

Boreas had a momentary urge to ask her whether she had loved Lothario more than him, but he resisted it, recognising that would be a very cruel question, and exactly what she didn't need from him right now. He didn't want her to be unhappy, and he decided to be a good, supportive boyfriend for her. "I didn't know I made you so happy... That alone makes me happy..."

They lay silently in each others' arms. Aqua's sniffing and whimpering on Boreas' shoulder soon stopped, and a while later her breathing became very slow as she went to sleep in his arms. Boreas was in a daze of love for the gorgeous creature in his embrace, as her sharing her anguish with him had only made him adore her more. He was only snapped away from his blissful adoration for her by a momentary pang of annoyance as he pictured the faces of his friends when he returned to them the next morning and they would draw the obvious conclusion. At least he figured Selene might be clueless enough that she wouldn't jump to that conclusion, and maybe some of the others would believe him if he told them there had been no horizontal dancing involved. Lucius would certainly make himself incredibly annoying, though.

But after that momentary pang of annoyance, he found he didn't really care as he cradled the soft, finned head resting on his shoulder. And then he knew it for certain: tomorrow he would tell his friends that he would leave the team. He would fight one final battle with them against Clay, and then he would leave with Aqua. He would miss them all, of course, but he wanted to stay with Aqua more then anything else in the world.

–

AUTHOR'S NOTES: Dear readers, this story has reached its ONE HUNDRED THOUSANDTH word in this chapter! According to this site's word count thingie, that happened last chapter, but these notes take up almost five thousand words together, meaning there are not quite as many words as the site would lead you to believe.

Also, I just love the title of this chapter. Sometimes I go for lame alliterations or puns, sometimes I can't think of anything at all and end up using silliness like "The Chapter Without a Title", and sometimes a gorgeous beauty of a title like this one just pops into my mind.

FEEDBACK: UNKNOWN: Q: Hmm, Smugleaf. I knew I heard that before so I thought you got it from one of my fav fics. Looked it up and it was a popular name for Snivy but not Servine?

A: It was indeed the name many people (including myself) gave to Snivy before its english name was announced. I've just been thinking that in-universe, it kind of sounds like a racist insult towards Snivy (and, by extension, their entire line).

Q: Is Lucius ever gonna stop being a douche?

A: Is Boreas ever going to stop being rash? Is Octa ever going to stop being arrogant? Is Aqua ever going to stop being a total flirt? I'm afraid it's just a part of who he is. He's a git.

Q: Finally, Aqua's probably going to travel with Boreas!

A: This chapter should provide some interesting insights into that idea.

Rattlez: Q: Wow what a horrible death for the snake.

A: True, being disemboweled and then having your throat cut is probably not on anyone's preferred ways to die list, but it's much better than being digested alive. All I can say is, don't do things like that to Boreas, or face Octa's wrath, which, as last chapter showed, can be quite horrible.

Q: and now octa's showing intrest in toxica lol

A: The fact that he mentioned she looked attractive doesn't neccesarily mean he's interested in her. But more on this question next chapter.

Q: why rush [Toxica's] evolution?

A: It's a shame you find I rushed it. I always planned for her to evolve like this, basically skipping the Gloom stage.


	35. The Underground Boss

Chapter Thirty-Five: The Underground Boss

_Future_

The flying mountain suddenly began turning as they climbed it. Boreas' paws lost all grip and he nearly fell into the depths, but he managed to grab hold of a small ridge, trying not to let go and reach the plateau just above him. Below him the vast, forested vista the mountain was flying over was breathtaking, but kilometres down. If he fell, he would certainly be dead. But he just couldn't reach the plateau above him.

"Need some help?" Aqua's pretty finned head looked over the edge.

"Aqua!" Boreas said happily, "there you are, help me up!"

"Of course, my love!" she said as she extended a paw over the edge.

Boreas tried to grab her paw with his free paw, but something heavy was hanging on to it. He looked down and saw it was Octa, dangling above the depths. "Octa? Are you here too?"

"Obviously," spoke Octa.

"Look, it isn't that I'm not glad you're here too," Boreas explained, "but I can't grab Aqua's paw while you're hanging on to mine."

"Oh, I shall just let go and let myself fall into the depths then, shan't I?"

"Yes. Since this is obviously a dream, I could just let you fall without any problem."

"Very perceptive, my dear fellow. However, have you paid any attention as to what this dream is trying to tell you?"

"It's not trying to tell me anything, because dreams are a product of the brain, basically thoughts had while you're asleep. Since it's a product of my own brain, it isn't going to tell me anything. I was just having a fun, albeit far-fetched adventure with Aqua when you had to enter my dream and start having this silly discussion with me. So why don't you just let go, if I know my dreams lately, the real fun starts when I get up there on that edge." He giggled in anticipation.

"You are right, of course, this dream is merely your own brain thinking while asleep. But perhaps that means you are trying to tell something to yourself? Maybe your decision to leave the team to go adventuring with Aqua isn't the right choice?"

"If it's trying to say that, it's not being very convincing. Because if I don't let go of you and grab her paw, I fall to my death in this dream. While if I do let go of you and grab her paw, not only am I safe, but I'll have... fun with her right there if the pattern of my dreams the last days holds."

"Well, don't blame me, we've just established _you_'re the one dreaming all this, including me, up. I can't help it if your metaphorical thinking is awful, I am not even real and even if I was you'd still be the one dreaming this, not me."

"Just go away, okay? Just let _me_ have _my _fun in _my_ dream and save the lessons for when I'm awake. Now since this is _my_ dream, I'm just going to pretend you weren't here, climb up there, and have some fun."

"You might want to direct your eyes upwards once again before doing that, my dear fellow."

Boreas looked up and saw the grinning face of Diego instead of Aqua's. "AAH!" he yelped as he lost his grip on the mountain.

Boreas tumbled through darkness. "Octa, you bastard, this dream was going awesomely until you had to show up and poke your haughty nose into my business!"

Flames erupted in the darkness and coalesced into the shape of a gigantic Zoroark head. "Hehehe," laughed Diego's fiery face, "it's not his fault, you know, but yours!"

"And as for you!" Boreas yelled at the flaming Zoroark, "Get out of my dreams!, unless it's so I can practise killing you, which, by the way, I'm still going to do next time we meet!"

"But if you leave the team, you'll get to kill me, because you'll never meet me again!"

"Even better, I wish I had never met you in the first place! I still have occasional nightmares about the night you hung me from that Ferris wheel, or at least, I _had_ them before I met Aqua and all my dreams, aside from this one, sort of started following a similar theme."

"But what I meant was: the team will have to continue fighting Team Plasma without you. What if they die?" suddenly a watery silhouette of Octa drifted past and evaporated as Diego slashed at it, "What if Team Plasma wins?" a mount of dirt shaped roughly like Black drifted by and was immediately melted by Diego, "Could you live with that?"

Boreas pointed angrily at Diego and saw his own paw was made of air, as was the rest of him. He was not invisible, though, he looked more like a Glaceon-shaped cloud. "You. Get. The. Hell. Out. Of. My. Dream. Everyone except Aqua, sod off! It's _my_ dream and I don't want any of you to bother me!"

Diego began to talk, but was suddenly interrupted when starlight coalesced into a shapely Vaporeon who kissed him. The madness all around him disappeared as he felt her lips caress his.

–

_Present_

Boreas was aware of nothing but the kiss waking him up and Aqua's body pressed against his. His eyes opened when their lips parted and he was greeted by Aqua's gorgeous visage. "Good morning," she whispered.

"Good morning, gorgeous," said Boreas, "and thanks. I was having a really annoying dream."

"So I heard," she smiled.

"Oh. Was I talking in my sleep?"

"More like mumbling, I couldn't catch most of it. But you sounded very annoyed."

They kissed each other again. "Aqua," said Boreas, "I've decided my answer to your proposal."

"Don't tell me yet," said Aqua, "don't decide yet. I want you to spend the day with your friends first."

"But why? It's not going to change my mind."

"It may. It just seems unfair since I cuddled you all night. That's got to be very persuasive, but your friends haven't had any chance to convince you. I just don't want you to make a mistake you'll be unhappy with."

"Okay, fine." _I will need to tell them anyway,_ thought Boreas, _might as well do it today and get it over with_. "You will hear my decision tonight. Oh, that reminds me, I need to get to the Gym for our battle!"

"No problem, love, I'll swim you there."

Boreas should really be enjoying holding on to Aqua while she swam, but his mind was preoccupied. The dream had been annoying, but it had alerted his mind to the downsides of leaving the team. Then again, what difference would he make in the fight against Team Plasma? In the end, he was just a single Glaceon, and he wouldn't really make that much difference. Besides, even if he did and Team Plasma succeeded because he left the team, that was no problem to him any more. Without a trainer, how much did he really care about pokémon and humans being separated? Sure, other pokémon might not always like it, but he could hardly be putting their happiness before his own. He was going to choose what made him happiest, and as his mind drifted back to Earth, he realised that was Aqua. He began covering her neck in kisses as she swam.

"Mmm," Aqua hummed in delight, "you know you'll make me lose concentration like that..."

"I know, but how could I resist it?"

When they arrived at the city, they kissed and said goodbye. Boreas would've asked her to come watch the battle, but he realised now that asking her to enter a human building would be out of the question.

He ran to the Gym, where he arrived just as Black and his other pokémon arrived too. Boreas was greeted by six grins that made him want to sink into the ground with shame. Though, when he took another look at Selene he saw her grin was more of an absent smile then a grin.

"Ah, Boreas," Black grinned, "glad to see you found some time in your uh... busy schedule to join us."

"'Ow'd it go?" beamed Toxica.

Boreas felt his cheeks burn with embarrassment as Octa, one eyebrow arched, started talking. "I suppose 'twas only a matter of time before you two engaged in carnal knowledge, given your respective personalities, but for you two to move so rapidly was quite rash. Regardless, you have my congratulations, my dear fellow, and I do hope you had fun."

"Just listen to the guy," Lucius sneered, "cropped up with jea-"

Octa interrupted him. "No, I am not jealous of Aqua. No, 'tis not just a phase he's going through. No, he does not love me more. There, I made the jokes so you can do us all a favour and keep your mouth shut. In fact, don't ever open it again if you want to do the entire planet a service."

Boreas spoke up. "Would any of you believe me if I told you that what you think happened didn't actually happen?"

"You mean you didn't sleep with 'er?" Toxica asked incredulously.

"Well, if you put it like that, yes I did, but not like that."

"You mean, without rumpy-pumpy?"

"Yes, that's pretty much what I mean."

A couple of sarcastic grins and looks showed how much they believed him. "Fine," he said, "then I'm not going to tell you what really happened either."

He wondered if he should tell them he was leaving the team, but he figured he'd rather tell them one-on-one then to just throw it into the group. Black looked on his watch and entered the Gym. Inside was a deep pit with a mining elevator. Since Clay wasn't there, Black stepped on the elevator and it sunk down into the shaft. They travelled down into the depths, through layers of earth and past the occasional fossil. Finally a light from downwards became brighter than the sunlight from upwards. They reached the end of the shaft, a large enlightened cave. In the middle of it was Clay in his cowboy costume.

"There ye are, boy!" he said, "Ah think it's about time Ah saw for myself what it is about yer skills that makes a Gym Leader like Elesa take such a shine to ya! We'll be usin' three pokémon each! Krokorok, yer first!"

"Toxica," said Black, "show him what you can do!"

As Toxica and the Krokorok began their combat, Boreas noticed with a twitch of annoyance that Octa was looking at the battle with a bit of an absent smile on his face. "Octa," said Boreas, "I have to tell you something."

"Oh?" Octa answered without even looking at him, "nothing unpleasant, I hope?"

"Well, that depends on how you look at it. I'm leaving the team."

That got Octa's attention. He immediately turned to Boreas, a startled expression on his face. "I beg your pardon? I believe I might be suffering from a slight aural impairment today."

"I'm leaving the team."

"You... are... what?" Octa enunciated.

"I'm leaving the team to stay with Aqua, Octa. We're going to travel the world together."

"Don't you think this is a bit rash, my dear fellow?"

"No, she suggested it last night, actually, and told me to think it over carefully because she didn't want me to make a rash decision. So I decided this morning."

"Even a decision that one took quite a while to make can be rash, my dear fellow. And this decision is rasher than a rash on you on a day you are both inebriated and enamoured. Surely you must realise the idea of leaving your friends, whom you've known for most your life, to go gallivanting with a lady whom you've known for barely nine days is a truly silly and frankly wrong decision. But fortunately I have a much better idea that shall allow you to stay together with her even as we leave Driftveil: Aqua can join our team. I know 'tis unorthodox for a trainer to have more than six pokémon with him, but that needn't necessarily be a barrier. Besides, Capella still insists she is not technically a member of Black's team, so if Aqua joined he would technically have six pokémon in his team."

"I already thought of that, Octa, but she didn't want to join us."

"Oh, and quite obviously if 'tis an inconvenience to Aqua, you should just leave your friends. My dear fellow, I had rather hoped our friendship was strong enough that you wouldn't break it because 'tis a minor inconvenience to some strumpet you barely know."

"Look," Boreas was getting pretty angry at Octa's attitude, "it's not like that. She really has a very good reason why she can't join us, and there is absolutely no way she could without feeling horrible. And I know her very well!"

"Yes," said Octa with a mirthless grin, "you "knew" her all night long, didn't you?"

"Shut up, I told you nothing happened between us last night!"

"Don't lie to me, my dear fellow. And what might this compelling reason she has to ask you to abandon me be then, hmm?"

Boreas realised there was no way he was spilling Aqua's secrets to Octa. "I can't tell you, that's between me and her."

Octa gave him a cold stare. "Fine. Evidently our friendship is not as close as I thought it was. I would've thought you would feel by now you could confide any secret in me, but perhaps I was mistaken. I would've thought our friendship would be worth more to you than the whims of a lady you met a week ago, simply because she has brought you sexual pleasure, but evidently I was mistaken."

"I told you!" Boreas yelled, "We did not have sex!"

All pokémon eyes in the room turned to Boreas, who felt embarrassed as well as angry now. After a momentary pause, the battle continued. Boreas saw Krokorok was on its last legs, and Toxica finished it with a single Energy Ball. "Woohoo!" she cheered, "being evolved is awesome!"

"Well, Ah'll be, young'un," said Clay as he returned the Krokorok and sent out a Palpitoad, "Sure didn't see that coming!"

A Palpitoad appeared from the pokéball. "Ha, that's both a water and a ground type!" scoffed Black, "Toxica, you'll easily handle this!"

But as a bright green Energy Ball formed in Toxica's hands, one of the big blue bumps on Palpitoad's forehead burst open and a disgusting blob of purple sludge fired out at great speed and exploded all over Toxica before she could react. Toxica screamed in pain as her skin rapidly dried out and yellowed wherever the sludge touched her. It seemed for a moment she was going to continue the battle, but she was covered in a great amount of the horrid sludge and her flower was hanging limp and turning a sickly orange. Black forfeited and immediately rushed over with an antidote to help her.

"Ya don't become a Gym Leader without coverin' for weaknesses, boy," said Clay.

"Octa," commanded Black as he cleaned the horrid sludge off Toxica, "you take over."

Instead of making a remark or saluting his opponent as usual, Octa grimly nodded, drew his Leaf Blade, and stepped forward. He and Palpitoad carefully circled each other, both realising that whoever made an aggressive move would probably get hit first: if Octa attacked, he would be too close to his opponent to dodge a Sludge Bomb, while if Palpitoad fired a Sludge Bomb, the lithe Octa could dodge it and attack him, and both combatants could probably be defeated by a single attack from the other. They eyed each other cautiously, not daring to break the stalemate. Boreas hoped Octa would get one of the Sludge Bombs right in the face.

"Boreas," whispered a kind voice next to him.

"Capella," Boreas nodded, "I take it you want to talk to me about the little disagreement I just had with Octa?"

"Not really," said Capella, "it's hardly the first time you argued and you'll work it out in a few days as usual. I just wanted to ask you if it's true that you didn't have sex with Aqua last night."

"Yes, it's true," Boreas said frustrated.

"Okay," Capella nodded, "then I believe you."

"You do?" Boreas asked in surprise, "That's so unlike... Well, everyone else."

Capella nodded.

"Thanks, you've got no idea how frustrating it is that no-one believes me, even if it doesn't really matter."

Suddenly the stalemate was broken. Boreas hadn't seen who broke it, but Octa was dodging Sludge Bombs left and right, but didn't run at Palpitoad, instead dropping his sword and extending his vines. The vines slammed Palpitoad and left nasty red stripes, then they wrapped Palpitoad and seemed to dehydrate him within moments. Octa had to duck under one last Sludge Bomb before it was over.

"Givin' up's the easy way out!" said Clay, "If Ah wanted, Ah coulda given up any ol' time!"

He threw a pokéball, unleashing an Excadrill. Octa picked up his Leaf Blade once again and began battling the badger, but his every strike was parried by the massive metal claws.

Boreas was feeling a bit disappointed. "So... Aren't you going to ask me what happened last night if it wasn't what everyone thought it was?"

"No. Unless you really want to tell me, of course. But otherwise, I figure whatever may have happened was between you and Aqua."

"Well... I think I'd like to tell you. I asked her to join the team, but she can't. You see, human hunters killed her previous boyfriend and she's still very shook up about it. She can't help but hate humans and so there's no way she could join the team. And she can't just stay where she is either, because she is incredibly lonely and has absolutely no-one in the world, except for me. And so she wants me to leave the team and travel with her. And so do I."

"I see," said Capella, "that explains the argument. Well, I will miss you and so will the others, but I hope you'll be happy with her."

Boreas sighed in relief. "I'm glad you take it so well. Octa... He was furious! Why can't he just react the same way? Why does he have to start meddling and try to hold me back?"

"Because he's very fond of you," Capella said earnestly. "He likes you a lot, Boreas, and doesn't want you to leave."

"Why?" Boreas seethed, "why can't he just be happy for me?"

"You do the same thing, you know. When you try to stop Toxica's attempts to win his heart, it's essentially the same behaviour. You are scared of the thought that Octa might like Toxica more than you at some point, aren't you?"

"No, I'm not! That's ridiculous!"

"You are, aren't you?"

"Well, not as such. I mean, I just don't think Toxica is right for Octa and I want to protect him from her."

"Maybe, but the main reason is that you're afraid he might like Toxica more than you if he ever falls in love with her."

Boreas sighed. "I guess. What does it matter anyway?"

"Well, put yourself in Octa's position. He is not just having to face the fact that you like Aqua more than him, but now you are leaving with her too, meaning he would see you only very rarely any more. You've got to agree, having your best friend suddenly disappear from your life like that is pretty horrid, and you would likely react even more possessive of him if the roles were switched."

Octa ducked under a powerful metal claw as Boreas grudgingly had to agree. "Maybe. So you're saying I should try to make things up to him before I leave?"

"That might be a good idea, yes."

They watched the battle in silence as Boreas grew more and more annoyed. "Well?" he snapped, "when are you going to talk about Team Plasma?"

"Team Plasma?" Capella asked quizzically.

"Yes, Team Plasma. I know you're going to mention them next to convince me to stay, but I can already tell you it's not going to work."

"I'm not trying to convince you of anything, Boreas. And what does Team Plasma have to do with it anyway?"

"You are trying to convince me, you're just being subtle about it. And what if I was just the one person who might make the difference between Team Plasma winning and Team Plasma losing?"

"The chances of that are minimal," replied Capella, "it's very unlikely you're that special person who might make all the difference, or that such a person even exists."

"Yes, but what if I'm just the drop of water that makes the bucket flood over? It doesn't necessarily have to be because I'm special, but I could just be the one extra person good needs to defeat evil."

"Again, what are the chances things are so close that a single person would make the difference? Is it worth that tiny chance to give up your own happiness?"

"Okay, but what... What if one of you dies while fighting Team Plasma and I've left? What if you died, Capella? Or Octa? If I hadn't left, you might still be alive because in a single battle there is a good chance I would've made the difference! I could never forgive myself if that happened."

"But what about yourself? Isn't your own happiness worth more than all that? Why should you care what might happen to us if you're happy? We are old enough to take care of ourselves, and even if one of us died you would eventually get over it."

"But I-" suddenly Boreas' thoughts caught up to him and realised something very strange was going on. "Hold on, this is really weird. You tricked me into arguing your side while you argued mine!"

While Boreas hadn't been paying attention, Octa had been defeated. Black looked unsure of whom to choose. "Uh... Bore- no, wait, steel weakness... Luc- no, ground weakness... Uh, Capella, finish it!"

Capella threw Boreas a friendly smile as she slithered forward. "Believe it or not, but I'm not arguing either side. I just want you to make the best choice, so I voiced the arguments you already thought of. You've essentially been arguing with yourself."

She began using water and fire to battle her opponent while Boreas rushed over to help the unconscious and wounded Octa regain consciousness. But his thoughts weren't there, they were raging through his mind in a storm of conflicting thoughts and emotions.

–

_Future_

Alder stood in silent awe as his last pokémon was defeated. Finally he spoke the words: "...It's over. But it's an odd feeling. I'm not angry that I lost, in fact I feel happy. Happy that I witnessed the rise of a great new Champion!"

Boreas couldn't believe it. He looked at his friends and they all had the same dumbfounded expressions on their faces. Then he began laughing in victory, and before he knew it they were all hugging each other happily. Their journey was finally at an end, Team Plasma defeated and now the Elite Four and the Champion too, but... Yet, Boreas felt empty inside. He was glad they'd won, but he realised he had had to give Aqua up for it. He remembered her lovely smile, the soft touch of her lips, how he had stayed with her for a whole night to help her deal with her loneliness and just felt dead inside despite his superficial joy. He had achieved all he had ever hoped for, but at what cost?

–

_Present_

"Never," mumbled Boreas.

"Whuh?" mumbled Octa, slowly waking up, "Oh, it's _you_." He looked at Boreas as if the Glaceon was a very foul insect that had somehow found its way into his sandwich.

"Yes, it's me!" Boreas snapped. "But I'll go stand over there if I'm in your way, _my lord_."

Boreas bowed sarcastically and stood a bit away. He was convinced now that leaving the team was the right choice. And yet...

–

_Future_

Boreas thought the kiss would never end, and would've been quite happy if it never did. But eventually they broke apart and looked into each other's eyes. But Boreas saw the reflection of something unsettling in Aqua's gorgeous black eyes: six gravestones. He tore his gaze away from her and saw all six. He was filled with horror at the thought that he'd let this happen. He hardly dared read the names on the graves, even if he knew what they said.

**LUCIUS**

**?, KNOWN BY HER FRIENDS AS SELENE**

**TOXICA**

**CAPELLA OF THE HOUSE OF DRACO**

**BLACK H. TOUYA**

**OCTAVIANUS OF THE HOUSE OF EQUINOX**

How could he have let it happen? How could he have left them? Even if they hadn't met their premature ends he would never have seen them again. He looked back into Aqua's eyes with nothing but sorrow and hate.

–

_Present_

"Never," Boreas mumbled even more vehemently. This time, his mind was made up. As much as it pained him, he couldn't leave with Aqua. He realised he had to go tell her and sneaked onto the elevator while the others were too busy watching the battle to notice. When he reached the top of the shaft he pressed the button that sent the elevator down again and ran out of the Gym.

He had to search by the river for a while, but eventually found Aqua fishing and called for her. She surfaced with a radiant smile on her face that evaporated when she saw Boreas' grim face. "I see you've decided."

"Yes, I have," said Boreas glumly. He had no idea how he was going to tell her his decision, he couldn't bear the thought of telling her.

"You... Didn't choose for me, did you?" Aqua said flatly.

"N... No. I'm sorry, Aqua, I'm so sorry, but I just can't leave now... When this is all done and Team Plasma has been defeated, I will happily join you, but I just can't now... Please forgive me."

Aqua's pretty eyes found his and she kissed his forehead sorrowfully. "You don't need to be sorry, my love. I think I already knew this would be your decision if you really thought about it. It's why I gave you a day to think about it..."

Tears shot into Boreas' eyes as he hugged Aqua. "I really wish I could stay with you."

"I know. So do I. In a perfect world, I would join you and your friends on your surprising adventures in Unova, but we don't live in a perfect world. But that doesn't mean we'll see the last of each other tomorrow, my love. Your next stop will be Mistralton, won't it? I can get there by myself and meet you there."

"B-but..." Boreas stammered, "it'll be ages before we reach Mistralton... We won't see each other for weeks, if not months..."

Aqua kissed him. "But we _will_ see each other again, my love, and that's what's important. We'll spend as much time together as we can in Mistralton. And I won't even have to stay here, because like you, I'm leaving tomorrow. I'll probably reach Mistralton before you, so maybe I'll make some new friends there." She said it all in a cheerful voice, but Boreas could hear the sadness under it.

"Well," he said, "at least we've got one last day together."

–

Late that evening, Boreas arrived at the pokécenter.

"Well, well," Lucius laughed, "look who decided to spend the night here."

"Shut up," said Boreas, "Uh... Capella, Octa, can I speak to you two?"

Capella looked at him with an encouraging smile while Octa coldly stared at something a bit above his head.

"I... Well, I've changed my mind." A happy smile flashed over Octa's face for a single moment before his scowl returned. "I've decided to stay with you. I've already talked it over with Aqua, and we decided to meet in Mistralton. And I'm sorry for upsetting you, Octa. I didn't mean it that way."

"It's great to hear you're staying," Capella smiled.

"Hmpf," Octa sniffed haughtily.

"Come on," said Capella, "we all know you're incredibly happy about this and he's already apologised. So just make it up and be friends again. You know you want to."

Octa stared haughtily for a bit longer, and the a smile spread across his face. "Excellent, my dear fellow, 'tis most agreeable that you decided this way. I knew you'd come to the right decision eventually."

–

AUTHOR'S NOTES: This is probably clear by itself, but let me just make it a bit clearer: just because it says "future" above three bits of this chapter doesn't mean that's necessarily what's going to happen. Just like the bits that say "past" are memories of the past, the bits that say "future" are dreams of the future.

They won the Gym battle, in case you were wondering.

FEEDBACK: Rattlez: Q: Wow,i didn't think it was like that for aqua..but then again lots of people hide their true colors..i know aqua's just a made up character but i can relate to her...it's sad really...

A: Heh, not for me, it isn't. In fact I consider that a big compliment.

UNKNOWN: Q: I still have the feeling that Aqua is not who we think she is... Is it just me?

A: Strangely, no. I've had one other comment (on bulbagarden) from someone with vague suspicions about her. She had some interesting thoughts about the matter that I could confirm not deny.

redafromidget: Q: why are the nurses all called stuff like despair and misery thought it was nurse joy?

A: Not in my story, they aren't. Just because the anime does creepy weird things with cloned nurses doesn't mean I have to. As for why I chose these specific names... consider it backlash against the name Joy.


	36. In the Broad Daylight

Part Six: Blood, Magnets, and Tears

Chapter Thirty-Six: In the Broad Daylight

Heavy raindrops poured down from the sky. They were at the riverbanks at Driftveil's northern edge, about to leave, and Boreas could feel his friends wishing he'd hurry up as they waited for him to say goodbye to Aqua.

"Well, I guess this is goodbye," Boreas said awkwardly, not quite sure how to handle it.

He was about to turn away and walk off with them when Aqua's lips suddenly interlocked with his. Boreas could feel his legs give away as his mind was enveloped by the highly sensual kiss. He rubbed Aqua's back lovingly and felt her rub his back too. They lay on the ground firmly entangled as they kissed for what seemed like ages. Boreas felt Aqua wrap her legs around him as they kissed passionately.

"Hum-hum," Octa scraped his throat.

With a stab of disappointment, Boreas slowly ended the kiss, reminded of the world. They kept hugging each other very closely, though, relishing in the physical contact. "Well, my love," said Boreas, "I'll see you in Mistralton, then." He jocularly added: "if you still want to, that is."

"I want you right now, Boreas," Aqua whispered in his ear, "but I'll settle for waiting until Mistralton."

Boreas began kissing her again, but this time they let go of each other after a while. After winking one last time, Aqua jumped into the water and swam away. Boreas followed Black in a happy daze as they left the city while he chilled the rain above him to give himself a very cold shower.

–

Boreas usually enjoyed travelling and seeing new, unpredictable places. In fact he loved it and had a tendency to get annoyed and bored whenever they stayed in the same place for a long time. The horizon would seem to beckon for him, to invite him to come see what was behind it.

But not this time. Boreas pined for only one thing, and it was Aqua. The only part of the horizon that seemed to call for him was the part behind him, where he had left her. He could barely appreciate the forest they travelled through as they journeyed over Route 6. Instead he would spend most of the time thinking of Aqua, thoroughly lovesick. If he wasn't thinking about Aqua for a moment, he would soon be reminded of her by basically anything. Any amount of water would spark happy memories, and though he knew she wouldn't be passing through these rivers on her way to Mistralton, his heart jumped at every shadow in the water and every wave. In fact, anything blue would make him very joyful for a single moment, only to feel disappointed next. It seemed even the clouds conspired to remind him of the forked shape of her tail, or the finned shape of her head, or the pointed shape of her ears, or the curved shape or her hip, or the round shape of her eyes...

He was beginning to have a lot of second thoughts about choosing not to leave the team. He couldn't help but think he would've been much happier if he had chosen for Aqua, at least for now. Of course he might be unhappy eventually in some distant future, but he wondered if it had been worth sacrificing his current happiness for.

"Did you ever wonder how Capella can move without legs?"

"Wah!" Boreas startled, "Oh, Selene, it's you. Uh... Can't say I did."

"It's just weird," Selene croaked, "she doesn't have any legs or wings, yet she moves... I wonder how she does it."

"It's not really that strange, you know," Boreas explained. "Just look at her, she sort of keeps the front of her body on the ground and then slightly lifts her rear and-"

"Are you talking about my rear?" Capella suddenly asked.

"No, no, no," Boreas blushed, "of course I wasn't. I mean, I was, but only because I was explaining how you can walk without legs to Selene, who didn't understand that."

"Why don't you ask Lucius?" Capella suggested, "I'm sure he'll be glad to enlighten you."

"Okay, I'll go ask him," Selene flew off.

"So... How are you holding up?" Capella asked.

"Oh, fine," Boreas said with as happy a smile as he could muster, "A bit lovesick, I guess."

"That's very understandable. You two really seem to have something great going on between you."

"I can't wait until I see her again... She's so lovely."

"She certainly is," Capella agreed. "I hope the thought of her waiting for you in Mistralton cheers you up a bit."

"It does, it does. Also the fact that you're with me helps a lot too. All of you, I mean, but you in particular. You always seem ready to support me with kind words or wise advice, and I want you to know I really appreciate it."

"Thank you," she smiled.

Boreas sighed. "I can't wait for Mistralton... How long d'you think this route will take us?"

"Well, the route won't take very long, but we'll have to cross Chargestone Cave afterwards. You weren't there, but Clay gave Black all kinds of advice and information about it after our battle. Apparently it's a cave full of powerful electromagnetism, with many electric and steel types calling it home. Clay talked about floating stones, held afloat by sheer magnetism and gigantic electric arcs like lightning. It'll be quite a spectacular place if even half of it is true."

Boreas would normally love the idea of exploring such a bizarre place. "I guess," he sighed, "but to me it'll just make the journey to Mistralton a few days longer."

"More like a few weeks, if Clay is to be believed, actually."

"Weeks?" Boreas exclaimed, "Aww, I wish we could just skip it."

It is a well-known fact, of course, that most prophecies and expectations turn out to be mistaken. It is probably a good thing too, as it means our universe is an unpredictable, interesting one. But on occasion, someone says something so uniquely and thoroughly mistaken that it becomes a deliciously piece of hilarious irony in hindsight. When Bill Gates said "There's nobody getting rich writing software," or when Napoleon told the inventor of the steamship "you would make a ship sail against the winds and currents by lighting a bonfire under her deck? I have no time for such nonsense," they were these kinds of situations.

Capella said: "Cheer up, Boreas, I'm sure we'll all have a great time in the cave."

–

It was clear that winter was coming to an end. The snow had already disappeared before they reached Driftveil and temperatures were pretty warm now as well. But only at day; it was still frigidly cold at night so Black and all his pokémon would sleep in the tent, underneath all of Black's spare clothes and coats to keep them warm.

On one of these nights, most of them had gone to bed already. Only Toxica was still outside. Boreas was nearing sleep, his brain a soft, empty pillow of sleepiness inside his head, when he was suddenly snapped awake by a voice whispering: "Psst, Octa? You awake?"

"Yes," Octa whispered back, "I believe I am quite awake."

"Well, come on out 'ere!" Toxica whispered, "The stars are gorgeous tonight, you really 'ave to see them!"

There was a bit of a pause. Then Octa said "Yes, I believe I shall go outside," and Boreas could hear him sneaking out of the tent.

Boreas considered just going to sleep for a moment, but then rejected it and sneaked out of the tent himself. It was indeed an unusually beautiful night. Hundreds of stars glittered in the sky, and all five moons were up. There wasn't a single cloud in the sky. Octa and Toxica were sitting on a small slope, uncomfortably close to each other for Boreas' tastes. He walked up behind them and suddenly sat himself down between them, though there wasn't really enough room left between them. "Hey guys," he said cheerfully, "nice night we're having, isn't it?"

They made a bit of room for him. "Yes," Toxica spoke with a withering glare.

"Quite," said Octa. "My dear fellow, could I have a word with you in private?"

"Uh, sure." They excused themselves and walked some distance away, until Octa stopped, apparently satisfied Toxica couldn't hear them any more.

"My dear fellow," Octa asked, "Why do you exhibit this behaviour?"

"Uh... What do you mean?"

"Do not obfuscate stupidity, my dear fellow. I know you're doing it on purpose, and I ask you what the reasoning behind it is, for your interference makes me feel quite glim-flashy."

"What do you mean?"

"Fine, if you want me to spell it out for you: you have systematically been attempting to interfere in the friendship between Toxica and myself for a long time now. Why do you do this? Do you honestly believe I would ever consider her more of a friend than you? And even if you do, what makes you think you have the right to interfere?"

Boreas felt very embarrassed. "Well... I don't know how to put this, but... Um... I think she might be interested in being more than just a friend to you."

"Well, obviously."

"What?" Boreas asked flatly, "You mean you knew that?"

"Do you think me blind and stupid, my dear fellow? Evidently I knew it, it has been quite obvious for a long time now. But that is completely irrelevant."

"Well... I... Huh? But..."

"You have such a way with words, my dear fellow. I anticipate your next syllable with great eagerness."

"But you always seem not to notice... I just thought you were oblivious to it or something."

"Quite, yes, because obviously a disinterest in obvious romantic advances showcases obliviousness towards them, rather than simple disinterest. Isn't it quite obvious that I am in no way romantically interested in Toxica? Honestly, for one so smart you can be quite stupid, my dear fellow. Yet all this is entirely irrelevant to the discussion we're having. Whether I consider Toxica a friend or a romantic interest is not the issue, the issue is your apparent belief you have the right to interfere in my relationships to others."

Boreas felt very embarrassed and rather silly about it now. "Uh... Yeah, sorry. I shouldn't have, you're right. But-"

"No, you shouldn't have. And I would appreciate it if you ceased this behaviour at once."

"Okay, I will. I suppose it was rather childish of me. But, you know, on occasion it really seems as if you like her too in that way."

"Total codswallop. Poppycock. Nonsense. Utter balderdash and cobblers. Rubbish, tosh, tripe. An utterly mistaken impression, my dear fellow. I am not in the least romantically interested in her, and even if I were 'twould not matter, for she is neither of my species nor of noble birth."

"So?"

"Therefore, even if I _was_ romantically interested in her in some bizarre kind of alternate universe, I could never allow myself to mingle with her in such a way. After all, thirty-five generations of my ancestors were properly bred to give me the great gift of a noble birth, so I could hardly deny that gift to my own descendants, could I?"

While Boreas had liked to hear Octa wasn't interested in Toxica, he didn't like the sound of this at all. "I thought you said that whole idea of not mingling with non-properly bred pokémon was outdated and only your great-aunt Galaxia still believes in it?"

"Oh, evidently, I consider that rubbish, otherwise we would not even be friends. But this is just being friends and socialising, 'tis hardly the same as squandering the noble Equinox blood running through my veins willy-nilly by procreating with non-pure-blooded, non-well-bred pokémon."

"You've got your priorities in a very weird order, you know? First of all, just because you're in love with a girl or romance with her doesn't mean you're automatically going to have cubs with her." He shuddered at the thought of suddenly having cubs to care for due to his relationship with Aqua. "Also, it seems to me you're kind of limiting yourself to a very small group of girls there. I mean, how many female Snivies, Servines, and Serperiors of pure blood can there be who aren't related to you? What if you don't like any of them?"

"'Like' doesn't enter into it, my dear fellow. When my breeders and my family decide 'tis time for me to procreate, I shall do so, regardless of whom they choose."

Boreas was shocked by this. "But that's disgusting! They're just gonna choose some girl they want you to breed with and you have to sleep with her to make little Snivies without even knowing her?"

"Now, do not denigrate that which you do not understand, my dear fellow. I would know her, as we shall of course be properly introduced and given time to woo one another before the matrimonial ceremony would be conducted. After that, yes obviously 'twould be our duty to produce progeny to make sure the noble blood of Equinox flows into the next generation, but our union would be a loving one, my dear fellow."

Boreas still thought it was completely ridiculous. "But what if you _don't_ love her?"

"Love shall grow eventually even if it may not be present at first. Our respective personalities shall be taken into account when my mate is chosen, my dear fellow, don't worry."

"But what if you love someone else? You can't even choose for yourself, that's so horrible!"

"I suppose 'tis the downside of being of noble blood, my dear fellow. I have a duty to both my ancestors and my descendants, therefore 'tis irrelevant whether I love another than my chosen mate. You see, my blood is quite a lot more precious than yours, or that of most pokémon, for 'tis not just mine, but that of my entire family. 'Tis my duty to ensure my descendants shall be able to claim the same birth that I can."

"To hell with your 'duty'!" Boreas shouted angrily, "You can't let them do this to you, it's totally unfair!"

"To. Hell. With. My. Duty." Octa slowly and coldly articulated. "I know you do not view duty and honour as very important matters, but_ I_ do. I would consider both of them more important than my life, and frankly I find the suggestion that I should just ignore my duty deeply insulting."

Boreas was about to argue with Octa, but recognised his friend was adamant about this and if he argued it would turn into a very nasty argument. "I still disagree, but I'm not going to argue about it. Anyway, back to Toxica, if you don't like her in that way, why don't you just tell her so? It seems kind of mean to let her think she has a chance for so long instead of just breaking her heart quickly and getting it over with."

"Well, she has never admitted her feelings towards me. The day she does I shall be forced to tell her the truth, but until that day I see no reason to unnecessarily complicate our relationship with a sudden declaration that I see her as no more than a friend, and couldn't consider her more than a friend even if I did. And now, my dear fellow, I'm going to return to Toxica to gaze at the celestial panorama. I would appreciate it if you didn't interfere."

Boreas returned to the tent, but he just couldn't get to sleep. What Octa had told him seemed horrible, and he didn't wish it to anyone, let alone his best friend. He reminisced about how he had fallen in love with Aqua, spent so much wonderful time with her, kissed her; and felt horrible when he realised Octa could never allow himself something as wonderful as that. Octa would never be in love, when he kissed someone it would be because he had no choice, and he would only ever be with a girl for the rest of his life because he had to. Boreas trembled with the unfairness and with annoyance that Octa himself, who could easily just ignore all that nonsense and love whomever he liked, would proudly continue that idiocy.

He also felt sympathy for Toxica. He might have found her obsessing over Octa annoying, but now he really felt sorry for her. When she finally collected enough courage to admit her feelings to Octa, all she would get would be a refusal and the same cold-hearted story Octa had told Boreas. It would feel far worse than when Febby had shown up with a boyfriend, Boreas realised.

–

AUTHOR'S NOTES: Lucius' answer to Selene? "How can you fly without a brain? Some things no-one can answer, you crazy bird."

FEEDBACK: UNKNOWN: Q: Hmm, Octa's change of mood seems rather rushed, no? Haven't heard of him so... bipolar?

A: Hmm, maybe you're right, it may have been a bit rushed. A moodswing like that doesn't really fit Octa. Though it was caused by his joy that Boreas isn't leaving, and he probably talked about it with Capella before.

Q: To be honest, I was kinda dreading this gym battle. Why? 'Cause Clay's gym was so annoying thanks to the moving pads and trainers! Originality is just another reason why I like this story,I suppose.

Rattlez: Q: I can't belive boreas would hope octa gets poisoned!isn't it bros before...nevermind O_o

A: Well, when you get down to it he probably doesn't _really_ want Octa to be poisoned. He's just very angry at him and has a tendency to let his anger get the better of him.


	37. Into the Shadows

Chapter Thirty-Seven: Into the Shadows

"...And so his family and breeders will choose his mate... He will never get to fall in love, he'll never kiss a girl a really loves, he'll live unhappily ever after with someone he doesn't love. And the worst thing is, he thinks it's just great... He thinks it's his duty to his ancestors and descendants and is very adamant about it."

Capella nodded. "I see," she spoke back softly, so the the others didn't hear the conversation. "I didn't know things were like that for Octa. I suppose I should be lucky my family never went went around telling me whom I could and couldn't love, despite our claim to great ancestry. I can really understand why you'd feel so bad about it."

"It's just... I've had all that joy of falling in love with Aqua, her falling in love with me, kissing her and all. The thought that Octa won't ever get to experience that... I want him to experience the same kind of happiness I have. I mean, he's my best friend, and he really deserves that sort of thing. But you know, I can tell if I argued about it with him, it'd just turn into a really nasty and bitter argument and he wouldn't be convinced anyway... But I can't just stand by and let him throw his happiness away either."

Capella surprised Boreas with a quick, friendly hug by wrapping around him. "Cheer up, Boreas. Remember that it's not an immediate problem right now. While he isn't actually in love, and probably never has been, it's easy for him to just write it off and assume he can go without it. But when he actually falls in love, it'll be a lot harder to keep to his 'duty' and there's a good chance he'll depart from family tradition."

That would cheer Boreas up, if not for one thing: "But surely his ancestors show he won't? If they did it like this for 34 generations, surely many of them have fallen in love with others than their chosen mate, and yet they ended up with the one their family and breeders chose. Why would Octa be any different?"

"First of all," said Capella, "Octa is not his ancestors. He likes to pretend he is, but he isn't. It's not his ancestors who are relevant, but him. Secondly, his ancestors didn't have you and me as friends. Because when Octa falls in love I'm going to do everything in my power to convince him to jump at it and not let family tradition stand in the way of his happiness. I'm sure you'll do the same."

That made Boreas feel much better. "Yeah, yeah, I will. But do you think we could convince him? He's very adamant about this kind of thing and you know he doesn't change his mind quickly."

Capella nodded. "True, his convictions can be as strong as a mountain's foundations. But surely you've realised by now that love is powerful enough to move mountains? Especially when we give it a bit of an extra push."

"Are you sure?"

"Of course I am. Love conquers all, Boreas. I'm sure it can even melt our friend's cold heart with its flames. We can't do anything about it now on our own, but I guarantee you that when he falls in love we only need to give him that little extra push he'll need to make the right choice."

"Yeah, we will. You really know how to give someone hope, you know? You're such a great friend."

"Thank you. That's a very nice thing to say."

–

"We're being followed," Selene whispered in Boreas' ear.

They had been in Chargestone Cave for a week now, and Boreas still marvelled at everything in the cave. The rocks held afloat by electromagnetism were only the beginning of the wonders of Chargestone Cave. The walls themselves glowed with a weak, pulsating blue light making flash lights unnecessary. Electric charges ran through the rock, and on occasion they would jump out in massive lightning bolts. The charge in the air made Boreas' fur stand on edge more often than not. The cave was quite rocky too, and they had to climb up and down rockfaces often. It was easy to forget his lovesickness in such an exciting surrounding.

"Followed, eh?" Boreas asked the floaty-brained Murkrow jocularly, "by what?"

"I'm not sure," she whispered, "but I think they're invisible in a way."

Boreas smiled at his silly friend. "Invisible in a way?"

"Yeah, I'm not sure how to explain it... I think they really are as visible as you or me, but are just very good at seeming so uninteresting our brains just ignore them as somebody else's problem... The only reason I even noticed them at all was that I just happened to be surprised by one in the corner of my eye, but when I looked at it directly I couldn't even see it any more... I've seen them in the corners of my eyes a couple times since."

Boreas smiled disbelievingly. "Invisible people who are not really invisible? Oh, those guys. Don't worry, they're just here to see if I would make a good member for the Invisible People who are Really Quite Visible club. I sent my application in a few days ago."

"Really? Can I join too?"

"I'll tell them you want to join if they accept me."

"Oh, that'd be so- Hold on, you're not serious, are you? I think I've heard of this... It's called saw-cast-him, right?"

Boreas nodded. "Yeah, I was being sarcastic."

"So no club for invisible people?" Selene said sadly.

"I'm afraid not. But why don't you go warn Lucius about the invisible people?"

"I'll do that, thanks! He'll want to know this." She flew off.

"Heh, invisible people," Boreas chuckled, "this magnetic field must be making her brain even fuzzier than normal."

But then he had to swallow his laughs: three very visible masked people were suddenly around Black, one of them with a knife on his throat.

"Ah!" Black yelped, "Who are you? What do you want?"

Boreas wanted to help, but realised he couldn't do that without risking Black's life. He saw the same helplessness in his companions.

"Come," said one of the masked men. Black had no choice but to follow them. They walked him around a corner, where a huge TV-screen was built in the wall. Suddenly the masked men were gone.

"Wow, you forced me to walk five metres I would've walked by myself anyway. That was so incredibly useful."

"There's a TV in this wall," remarked Boreas. He frowned. "Why is there a TV in the wall?"

The TV turned on seemingly by itself. Boreas startled, seeing the faces of the five Sages they had met and two others. Ghetsis stood in the front, smiling like a car salesman about to rip you off, and the other six stood in a row behind him, their coloured robes looking like a rainbow.

The goateed Zinzolin stood on the left of the screen in his purple robes. Boreas shuddered at the memories of his Seviper eating him alive. Next to him stood the bald old Gorm in his blue robes. Boreas remembered how he had nearly been executed under water by his Kingdra. All the way on the right of the screen was the greying blond Rood in his red robes. Boreas remembered the pain as flames consumed his flesh during the battle against him. Next to him stood the moustached Bronius, in his brown robes (though they seemed more of a dark orange now). Boreas was reminded of the time he'd spent locked up with his legs broken and how Thomas had breathed his last breath in front of him, his neck broken.

The final two sages stood in the middle. The one on the left was thin as a skeleton, had a long beard and wore green robes. The one on the right was very fat, had a sleazy moustache, and wore yellow robes. Standing next to each other, they looked almost exactly like the number 10.

Six of them were grinning maliciously, while Zinzolin simply stared in a mixture of anger and sorrow.

"Hello, Black," spoke Ghetsis. "I believe you know most of my friends already, but let me introduce the two you have never met. These are Ryoku, master of the grass-type, and Giallo, master of the steel-type. We are the Seven Sages. I believe it's time to tell you how I created Team Plasma."

He began pacing in front of the other Sages. "It's thirty years ago by now... I had a dream. I saw a world where pokémon and people were free to reach their full potential. Free to develop themselves to the fullest, without interference from the weak humans, free to use their power however they liked. You see, our world is a very imperfect one... Worthless humans hold back both pokémon and the few worthy, intelligent, powerful humans from reaching their full potential... Pokémon and some people have great potential, but the other humans... They're weak. They have no ambition, no spine, no drive, no dreams! They capture pokémon and use them for futile contests and fake battles, stifling their potential forever. And they do the same to humans who show potential, they are forced not to use their power to their fullest, but to consider the wishes and needs of the weak... This is evil. It was a terrible realisation. The mighty should rule, be revered by the weak! They, or should I say we, should be in charge of the planet, not the weak! We alone can make our dreams and ambitions true, and rule in the best way possible. In the end, it would even be better for the weak.

I realised I was one of the mighty... But by myself, I could never change the world. I would need to seek allies worthy of my friendship. And so I travelled the world for years, seeking out the most powerful trainers on the planet... Sadly, most of them didn't agree with me, brainwashed as they were by the weak... But I forged a powerful friendship with the six who did agree with me. I convinced them their various positions as Elite Fours, Champions, and pokémon masters were not worthy of them and their pokémon, so they all left their posts... To join me. We realised that even with the power the seven of us wielded together, we were still not powerful enough to bend the world to our will... So we planned. We found a perfect plan to allow pokémon and people to unleash their full potential! And we realised we'd need the legendary pokémon of Unova for it. But the legendary dragon would only appear to a 'hero'. Unfortunately our ambition, our might, our very potential disqualified all of us for it... We needed someone pure of heart, someone weak, yet strong in a way, with ambition like us, but willing to waste their ambition on others. And so we decided on a plan: I would concei-"

Suddenly the skeleton-like Ryoku stepped forward. "Ghetsis, I think you had better not tell him of this yet. Just in case."

Ghetsis nodded. "You are right, my friend. This information is too valuable." He turned back to the camera. "I will not tell you the entire story today. You will likely never hear it, but I may tell you the rest later. If there is a later for you, which I highly doubt. You see, after more than twenty years of planning, we initiated the penultimate stages of our plan a year ago. All seemed to go well... But then Rood here returned from his operations on Route 3 with startling news... He had been defeated. Defeated by an outnumbering force using foul trickery and cheating, but it was still defeat... A hard hit to all of us. And soon, Gorm followed. We realised you, who were involved in both incidents, were a threat. A very minor one, but still a threat. So Bronius decided to take care of you when you reached his city... Sadly, he had mercy on you and it led to the temporary downfall of our operations there... Zinzolin made the same error when you reached Driftveil, and three of his pokémon died for it. It is clear by now, you are not be an ordinary trainer. It seems you mainly won through luck and trickery, but it is still impressive. We have decided to take you seriously.

And, at the same time, our lord N reported he had met you, and he thought you might be the other hero... He wanted us to test you. N is what I raised him to be, naïve and dramatic. He believes you will defeat any threat we send your way, because it's destiny that you... Well, I can't tell you yet. But we take another view. Even if you are the other hero, that will not save you. We have the power to change any destiny we want! Therefore, I want to inform you this is the final day of your life. Ryoku is waiting for this recording to finish to attack you. He will not show you, or your pokémon any mercy. There will be no cages or wounds involved this time. Only graves. This is regrettable, but necessary. Farewell, Black."

The TV turned off by itself. Footsteps approached after a moment. Ryoku looked even thinner in real life than he did on the recording. He looked like a green-clad, bearded skeleton, very spidery. Behind him followed six pokémon; a Ferrothorn, a Lilligant, a Cradily, an Exeggcutor, a Tangrowth, and a Shiftry. There was no mercy in any of their eyes, just determination.

"It is useless to flee," spoke Ryoku in a Japanese accent, "there is no escape. The Shadow Triad would stop you."

Black's pokémon formed a protective line before him. "So, you're just planning to kill me?" Black asked.

"You gladuated from a minor annoyance to a major threat when you murdered three of Zinzolin's pokémon, Black. We have no choice but to eliminate you and your pokémon."

"And for what? For your ridiculous idea of allowing yourselves to reach your full potential? I thought you were simply misguided before, but now I see you're just seven egomaniacs who thirst for power. The whole pokémon liberation business is just a distraction from your real goals, isn't it?"

"Silence, boy. I won't argue with you about this. There's no use, as you'll soon be dead."

"Why not simply get your invisible guys to kill me, then?"

"Because we believe you deserve to die like this. You have a promise of power. That promise deserves to be extinguished in a worthy manner; by one even more powerful, namely, rather than by a knife in the back or a cut throat. Secondly, because this is a personal matter. You have interfered with our plans and murdered three pokémon of a very close friend of mine, it seems only fitting I should be the one to end your interference for good. Sayonora, Black. Kougeki Kaishi!"

–

FEEDBACK: UNKNOWN: Q: Aw, poor lovesick Boreas. I could probably relate to that. Maybe.

Personally, honestly, and truthfully: I don't really like Toxica's character, but I think Octa should at least give her a shot. I think Octa shouldn't be so stuck up about his 'honor' and 'royal blood ancestor tradition' BS, but as you enlightened me before, it's just the way they are. Can't change his ways... or, can he? Dun Dun Duuun!

A: Well, there _is_ such a thing as character development. I didn't really mean the characters would never change at all when I answered your question, just that they wouldn't change in completely fundamental ways. Though I'm not saying he will lighten up with this nonsense either, just that there's a possibility.

"The Bulbafinatic": Q: AWESOME. It's pretty impressive how you give each character their own little personality, and Boreas rocks, too.

A: Thank you.

Q: Did you maybe use a writing scheme based off of the Warriors series? Not that that's a bad thing. I love that series, too.

A: No, never heard of it. I basically just write down the story that's in my head.

Q: Can't wait to read about Aqua and Boreas, and maybe, hopefully, they'll travel together for a little while.

A: Well, by the time you read this you probably read how that is sadly an impossibilty for now.


	38. Penumbra

Chapter Thirty-Eight: Penumbra

Though they were all powerful grass-types, not all of Sage Ryoku's pokémon battled in a similar way to Octa, the most powerful grass-type Boreas knew. Some of his enemies fought like him, using speed, agility and finesse to rapidly dance over the battlefield, but did so in a much more powerful, rapid sort of way. Lilligant and Shiftry were a lot like this; they rapidly and agily danced over the battlefield, unleashing powerful blasts of energy as they drained their enemies. Others, like Ferrothorn, fought without any finesse or style, simply unleashing mighty attack upon mighty attack while seeming entirely impervious to damage. To his luck Boreas was finding the type advantage he had over all Ryoku's pokémon, except Ferrothorn, very useful. Though they were far too powerful to be simply taken down by his attacks, he could hurt and distract them.

Tangrowth was somewhere between the two styles. As a whole, it walked like a powerful, dangerous force of nature; but its vines were nimble and agile. It walked around over the uneven battlefield like a massive storm of vines trying to grab Boreas. He nimbly dodged some of the vines, and when one came too close he would quickly Ice Beam it to make it jerk away in reflex. But with dozens of vines attacking him at the same time, he found himself backing into the cave wall. He focused entirely on his defence, and remembered a trick he had used in the battle against Zinzolin: he could quickly parry an attack by unleashing a very small, but very cold blast of cold from his paw, rapidly freezing and sublimating the air so it created a small, but powerful shock wave that interfered with most attacks. He found that if he timed it right, it was very useful for fending off the vines trying to grab and beat him. He parried vines left and right, but it still wasn't enough. Eventually the inevitable happened as a vine caught his hind paw and lifted him in the air. Boreas used Ice Beam on Tangrowth's hidden face, but it still whipped him with the vines. Boreas screamed in pain as the vines left long whip-marks on his back.

Suddenly flames burnt on Tangrowth backside. It roared in pain and dropped him. "Yeah," Boreas heard Lucius' voice call out, "and how did ya like that, ya nimrod? Why don't you pick on someone strong like me instead?"

Tangrowth turned to deal with Lucius, so Boreas immediately attacked. Burning Tangrowth from one side and freezing it from the other, Boreas and Lucius were giving it quite a hard time. The battle seemed to be going well for them, but Boreas saw something he couldn't ignore: Toxica lay writhing on the floor in front of Exeggcutor, whose eyes were glowing an eerie purple. She was entirely defenceless and apparently in pain.

He broke off combat with Tangrowth and ran through the battlefield, passing Octa duelling Shiftry with moderate success and Capella and Black fighting Lilligant together, Black wielding a big rock and Capella spitting flames and nets of electricity at it. As soon as he came close, Boreas struck the Exeggcutor's egg-heads with Ice Beams. The eyes dimmed as the Exeggcutor broke off its attack, only to turn on Boreas.

Suddenly Boreas felt something _touch _his mind... A powerful will attempting to enter it. He tried to repel it somehow, to focus on stopping it, but it easily penetrated his mind. He heard a voice in his mind and felt it probing his memories. "_Well, well, Boreas, you've been through a lot over your short life, haven't you? Combat... Friendship... Tragedy... Love..."_

_Get out of my memories! They're private._

"_Hahaha, silly Boreas... Do you think me looking at them is the worst that's going to happen to you? Maybe I should alter them a bit, hmm? How would you like to have a memory of Black snapping Thomas' neck? Or Octa raping Aqua? You'd never realise they were fake..."_

_No, you-you can't!_

"_Oh, but I can. I could make you hate all your friends forever, but I won't. It would take far too long and wouldn't be productive. I'll just overload your nervous system with blasts of psychic energy to kill you instead. Sigh, it's a shame to have to destroy your mind, it's a very good mind... There is much intelligence in here, and also powerful, fiery, passionate emotions. It's a shame you sided with the wrong side. I think we could've become friends in another life. Hehe, listen to me getting melodramatic; it's not easy to kill someone whose mind you've seen."_

Exeggcutor's glowing purple eyes were all Boreas saw as powerful energy coursed through his body, overloading his nerves and making him scream as his entire body was in severe pain.

"Oy, not on my watch!" yelled Toxica and the pain disappeared, as did Exeggcutor's mind, as Toxica had covered it in toxic pollen. Before Exeggcutor could attack her, Boreas got back to his feet and began attacking too. Fighting two pokémon at once, Exeggcutor had no chance to probe their minds and instead tried to overload their nervous systems with psychic pulses. But the poison Toxica had used and Boreas' own ice attacks were quickly getting to it.

Toxica suddenly grabbed Boreas and dragged him to the ground. "Get down!"

An intense beam of pure white light, like the Sun itself, blasted past just above his head. It was thick enough to have completely enveloped Boreas if he hadn't ducked, and Boreas could feel its incredible intensity as it raged past. It hit the cave wall, where it created a massive, smouldering crater as the cave was showered in debris. "That's Hyper Beam!" Toxica yelped.

"Thanks," said Boreas, staring at the smouldering crater, "that'd have vaporised us if it hit..."

But then, the spiky, steel-clad Ferrothorn attacked. It swung its powerful, thorny seed pods around like maces, shattering rocks as it hit them. Toxica and Boreas both tried counter-attacking, but its powerful steel armour seemed to make it impervious to damage. Boreas' Ice Beams just left a slight white snowy residue that quickly disappeared, and Toxica's Energy Balls seemed to do nothing at all.

Boreas ducked behind a rock to hide from Ferrothorn's powerful pods, but the rock shattered as the mighty steel-type hit it, showering Boreas in painful stone splinters that made many small cuts. He realised only the fire attacks Lucius and Capella could use stood any chance against the Ferrothorn and began withdrawing to Capella (as Lucius was still very busy fighting Tangrowth). The mighty pods hit the ground with Earth-shaking impacts behind him as he ran. As he passed Octa, who was still fighting Shiftry, his friend suddenly tackled him to the ground as another Hyper Beam blasted overhead with the intensity of a solar flare.

"That beam's devastating," Octa pointed out, "dodge it at all costs!"

"Thanks, that's the second time someone- LOOK OUT!" he grabbed Octa and rolled them both away, just avoiding Ferrothorn's seed pod crashing down to crush them both.

They quickly got to their feet and continued fighting. Capella was fighting Lilligant, who had given Black a nasty cut and was trying to keep attacking him. Boreas shot Ice Beams at Lilligant to give Capella some freedom. "Capella, some help with Ferrothorn would be very useful!"

Momentarily not busy with Lilligant, Capella had a chance to spit flames at Ferrothorn, who really didn't seem to like that. The flames left nasty marks that kept smoking. After several flames, it actually retreated to its trainer. "Awesome, Capella!"

"Thanks, now let's get that Lilligant, together we may be able to defeat it!"

The dragon and the fox battled Lilligant, and it quickly turned into a very defensive battle. Boreas would parry attacks by making a short, concentrated pulse of cold with his paw; Capella would use a spark of electricity from the jewel on her forehead; and Lilligant would neutralise attacks with a blast of energy.

They circled around each other firing attacks that were either dodged or parried, all trying to find an opening in the enemy's defences. Capella and Boreas outnumbered Lilligant and they were both at a type advantage, but Lilligant was phenomenally fast and powerful. Even though she had to spread her attacks between him and Capella, Boreas was still having a hard time parrying all the energy balls and barely had time to Ice Beam his opponent. They tried to outflank Lilligant, but the nimble way it danced around as it battled meant they often ended up next to each other anyway.

"Keep putting pressure on it, Boreas!" Capella encouraged him after ending up next to him again, "I think we can win this battle without casualties!"

Suddenly Boreas felt something wrap around his tail, and before he could do anything Tangrowth lifted both him and Capella up. They dangled from the charred, smouldering mass of vines upside-down. Boreas used Ice Beam against the Tangrowth, but it actually seemed to like that as it put the flames it smouldered with out.

"Cradily," Ryoku commanded. "Execute them with Hyper Beam!"

The next second seemed to last for an eternity. Cradily's head glowed with a white, solar light. Boreas and Capella both realised her flames were the only thing that could save them. They looked each other in the eyes. A friendly smile tugged on the corner of Capella's mouth as a grim fatality entered her kind eyes. Boreas realised what she was going to do and wanted to tell her not to do it, to save herself first, but it was too late. She spit a string of flames at the vine Boreas was hanging on. Tangrowth yelped in pain and let go of Boreas as it retracted its vine. Capella spit fire at the vine holding her own tail as Boreas began to fall, but it was too late: a blinding light blasted just over Boreas and his tail burnt with pain. Capella's thin, serpentine form was slightly visible in the beam, like a wisp of smoke.

Boreas fell in a shallow hole on the ground, the pain in his tail far outweighed by the pain in his heart. But when Capella dropped into the hole too, her back turned to him, he was happy again. "Oh, Capella, you're still alive! I thought you'd been vapo- GAH!"

He almost gagged as he embraced her and turned her around and saw the Hyper Beam had blasted most of her flesh off her front side. There was no skin left on that entire side of the body and most of the flesh underneath it had been destroyed too. He could see most of her organs, at least the parts that were left, and could see all the way to her spinal chord in various places. Blood squirted out massively, soaking Boreas' fur within seconds. He realised what was left of her heart still beat and the one lung that remained still breathed and looked into her face.

It was horrible to see his friend like this. Her face looked as gruesome as the rest of her body, but in a way even worse because he could still recognise her kind features in it. Her cheeks and snout had been blasted away entirely, resulting in a bloody skeletal grimace. In fact, little flesh remained on her skull. But parts of her kind eyes were left in her sockets.

"Capella, evolve, right now!" Boreas desperately shouted, "Please! You will survive if you evolve! It will all be better!"

Capella looked into Boreas' eyes with the remnants of her own and exhaled her final breath as the heavily damaged remains of her heart stopped beating. "No!" Boreas cried, "no, you can't die! Please, just evolve! Everything will be alright... Please..." He cried softly as he fully embraced her horribly damaged corpse. "...please... Capella..." She was gone forever.

Boreas sat there in the hole for a while, crying for his dead friend. Then a furious, burning rage worse than anything he had ever felt before came over him and set his mind alight. "I... will make them _pay_ for what they have done!"

He jumped out of the trench, looking like a ferocious werewolf or hellhound that has just committed unspeakable acts of horror, between the blood he was soaked with and his furious, vengeful face. His enemies stopped fighting in horror as he appeared from the ground looking like this. Boreas screamed with burning rage and attacked them. He fought his way through the battlefield in blind rage with massive clouds of snow and ice waving around him and attacking while he bit, clawed, and kicked his opponents, trying to inflict as much pain and death upon them as he could. He was screaming in inarticulate fury. His entire body was ablaze with hate as he tried to avenge Capella.

–

"My dear fellow, calm down please," said Octa as he grabbed Boreas, stopping him from continuing his rampage.

"Let me go, Octa! They _killed_ Capella!" Boreas roared.

"I know," Octa said with a grave face. "I saw her body. Calm down."

"How could I calm down? I have to avenge her!"

Suddenly Octa slapped his face. It served to partially wake Boreas from his rage. "Yes, you do, and you shall be far more useful to that end if you just alm down and think."

"THINK?" Boreas bellowed, "I'm going to kill them all!"

"Do – so – calmly!" Octa hissed, "Put your cunning mind to avenging her, not your stupid rage! Revenge is a dish best served cold!"

"I'm serving it just fine hot! Capella sacrificed herself to save me!"

"Then don't throw her sacrifice away along with your own life! They'll easily kill you if you don't calm down!"

"It's been going just fine like this before you interfered!"

"Only because they were terrified of you! But they have realised by now you are just a mortal, albeit very angry, Glaceon. So get your emotions under control if you don't want to follow Capella!"

Boreas tried to breathe normally. His fury was still very present, but at least he was no longer ablaze with it. "Okay! I am calm!"

Ferrothorn, Shiftry, and Lilligant chose that moment to attack them. "We need to think of- gah!- something fast, my dear fellow!" Octa said, dodging seed pods and parrying attacks, "We are the only ones left standing, while we took only two of them down. Don't worry, the others are merely wounded for now."

"Where's the fourth?" Boreas asked, parrying an Energy Ball and jumping away under a crushing seed pod.

"Defending Ryoku, it's that Cradily!"

The Cradily that had fired the Hyper Beam... But Boreas tried to focus, to keep calm. There would be time for mourning and rage later. The three enemies surrounded them now and formed a circle as Boreas and Octa fought them back-to-back, Octa with his Leaf Blade and Boreas using Ice Beams and parries. "If we can get past that Cradily," Boreas whispered as they fought, "we could take Ryoku hostage, like we did with Gorm." _Or kill him for what he did to Capella._

"But these- argh- three will – never let us do that," Octa said, "and we can't- just have one of us distract them, because they'd never keep fighting one of us with the three of them, and we'll need someone to battle Cradily as well. We can't do all of that with just the two of us."

He was right. In fact, it seemed they could only lose. They were thoroughly outmatched by three stronger opponents surrounding them.

Suddenly Lilligant screamed as Black dived upon it, stabbing it with the long bread knife he kept in his backpack. "Run!" he commanded Boreas and Octa as Ryoku returned his wounded Lilligant to its pokéball, "run for your lives!" he began attacking the other pokémon, wielding the knife like a dagger.

The other two would defeat or kill Black within a minute, Boreas realised, but he actually had an idea now. "Octa, you heard him, run!"

"Never! We shan't leave our trainer behind in combat!"

"I've got an idea, c'mon!"

Jumping over an attack by one of Shiftry's branches, they ran and got some distance between them and the two pokémon battling the human. Boreas unleashed an icy stormwind, not on the battlers but on a stone floating nearby. He channelled all his anger into the wind and the sparkling stone moved, kept accelerating it rapidly, until it arrived by the battle between Black and the two pokémon.

The two had just knocked Black down with some nasty blows and were about to kill him when the stone reached them. Though only Boreas had noticed it, a charge had been accumulating in the ground under them. When the floating magnetic rock approached, that charge suddenly found a way to go and arced through the air, using the bodies of Black and the pokémon as easy conduits on the way. Boreas thoroughly hoped Black would be okay, but he didn't have time to worry about it now.

Boreas and Octa ran at the Cradily, jumped out of the way of a Hyper Beam, and began fighting it. They synchronised their attacks so one of them would hit Cradily even if it defended. Though Cradily seemed slow, lumbering, and passive, it proved itself a powerful and agile battler as it easily battled the two friends with Energy Ball and Ancientpower. Ryoku watched the battle with interest. Boreas couldn't wait to get the human. He imagined knocking him to the ground, jumping on top of him, then freezing his head until he died. This little lapse into fantasy cost him dearly: Cradily slashed at him and he dodged too late. Terrible pain went through his head and he felt blood flow through his fur, but he kept fighting.

The attacks, which kept hitting Cradily soon had their effect on it. It was surprising how soon it was unable to stop them from running on to Ryoku. The human returned his pokémon to their pokéballs. "Very impressive," he said. Then he suddenly disappeared, probably with help of the Shadow Triad. They tried to find him as best they could, but were soon forced to concede that they'd lost a valued friend and the ones responsible had escaped.

–

"Today," Octa spoke solemnly, "we acknowledge a terrible loss. For this morning, Capella of the house of Draco died. Incredibly brave and selfless to the end, she gave her life in battle against her enemies, so that her friend might live. The manner in which she died was cruel and brutal, but at least her suffering was over soon.

Yet despite our terrible loss and the premature ending of a wonderful creature's life, this is not just a tragic occasion. 'Tis an opportunity to appreciate the time we spent in her presence, and to be grateful we were her friends. An occasion to celebrate her life, while we mourn her death. For Capella lived a life I believe we should all strive for. She was loved dearly by all those who had the pleasure of knowing her, and with good reason. Capella was wise, kind, friendly, loveable, sweet, honourable, brave, hard-working, fair-minded, and most importantly, a fierce friend. Capella graced this planet with her presence for a hundred and eight years. This is longer than any of us are likely to live, yet 'twas far too short. She was, despite her endless wisdom, still young. She could have made the world a brighter place with her presence for centuries. But death intervened."

Silent tears streamed over Boreas' cheeks as Octa delivered his solemn eulogy. He heard Toxica cry loudly next to him and embraced her to support her and himself. Lucius was scowling furiously, while Selene looked at her feet sadly. Black looked at the motionless corpse he held in a blanket with a trembling lip. All of them were wounded or hurt in various ways, but it was nothing compared to the gaping wound in their hearts. Toxica cried on Boreas' shoulder as he cried into her flower. When Octa described Capella with words like wise or brave, they sounded so empty. To Boreas, Capella was the memories to the kind words she spoke, the gentle hug she had given him, the friendly way she could smile, and the hope she could fill him with.

"The pain we all feel at this dreadful loss reminds us that though we may not always agree with one another, our hearts beat as one. The bonds of friendship between us celebrate a lady who was kind and brave and honest, to the very end. Though the world may seem so much darker without her light, that light is still present in all our hearts. We shall never forget Capella, and I feel honoured to have called her my friend. Farewell."

"She was good and kind," Lucius growled, "and I'll get the bastards that did this to her."

Black slowly lowered Capella into the grave he'd dug for her. "Farewell, Capella. Rest in peace."

Boreas wanted to tell him to stop as he threw the dirt back into the shallow grave, but he knew it would change nothing. Octa walked back, his face a calm mask, but Boreas knew the pain he had to be feeling under it and included him in the embrace as well.

–

AUTHOR'S NOTES: I feel really bad for killing Capella off. Also, I'll need to think of a name for the parrying move Boreas uses, it's not based on anything in-game.

FEEDBACK: fractalman: Q: I liked your hitchiker's reference. (The Somebody Else's Problem Field)

A: Good job, I was hoping someone would recognise the reference. I even considered having Ghetsis or Ryoku explain that actual invisibility is nearly impossible and why the Somebody Else's Problem field works better, but decided against it in the end.

Arronthered: Q: Ok why is it that the pokemon don't take orders from Black and just do there own thing in battles. Don't get me wrong it is cool and you made it work but I am just seeing Black as a useless character since he has barely had any character development and he has had no say in any pokemon battles. In my opion, more Black. Aside from that, this is probably the best story on .

A: Well, there are several reasons, the main reason being that this story focuses on the pokémon, and so it's much more fun to have them make the decisions in battle than the trainer. The other is that I just can't see the way battles are done in the games or the anime work in reality. The opponent will always know what you're going to do if you keep shouting attack orders at your pokémon. The anime is especially bad at this, as pokémon don't even seem to bother dodging unless their trainer shouts "dodge it!", and they always prove capable of dodging the attack then (at least they did, I haven't watched the anime for almost a decade so I could be utterly wrong). Training your pokémon to make them decide their own attacks, maybe with some pointers from the trainer, seems much more logical. And that's what Black, and every other trainer, in my story does. You're right about his lack of character development though, I find it hard to write character stuff for Black and have been very lacking in that department. I have some planned though, well see how that turns out. And thanks.

SquareRootofNine: Q: Exactly my point! who would lead someone only yo make them stop after 5 meters?

A: Yeah. The Shadow Triad's habit of making you walk a few tiles was so silly I couldn't resist lampshading it.

Glaceon34: Q: i have already guessed that Boreas will stay, however i still feel bad that we won't see Aqua again for sometimes, but hey i think you still haven't explained why you didn't mention Toxica in the previous chapter

A: If you meant chapter 29, it's because she had evolved to a Vileplume, but we wouldn't see her evolution until chapter 33. I would either have to mention she was a Vileplume or it would've seemed really odd in hindsight. That's why I didn't mention her, though she was in fact there. She was probably taking turns battling Octa or something.

"The Bulbafinatic": Q: Still awesome as ever. And this reminds me alot of the Warriors series. Like in the first book, Firepaw (as he was called then) saw the cat who had killed Spottedleaf while he and some ThunderClan warriors were attacking Brokenstar at the ShadowClan camp, and he became furious and tried to kill him. But then Whitestorm was all like, "No! We only kill cats when we have to!" And they didn't have to, so... Well, that just reminded me of Boreas and the Houndour and Zangoose (Zangoose? Zangooses? Zangeese? Zangeeses? What in the world do I say?) and keep writing, because you ROCK!

A: Thanks. As I mentioned, I never heard of the Warriors series. Canonically speaking, the plural of Zangoose is Zangoose, but I find writing "two Zangoose" or "five Glaceon" incredibly awkward and annoying. It's the same reason I don't capitalise the word pokémon, it just doesn't seem right. I pluralise Zangoose as Zangeese, but choose any form you like.

Q: Dialga's diapers. Clever.

A: Expletives and oaths for the pokémon world are a lot of fun to come up with.

Q: I wish I could make an account on this thing, but I'm only, like, 12 and three fourths years old. Darn it!

A: Eh, just select an earlier year than the one you were actually born in. Its what I usually did when I was underage.

Q: Octa evolved pretty suddenly, though. I'm not one to critique you, but it just didn't seem like a good moment to make that happen.

A: I agree with you. Chapter 13 is probably my least favourite chapter of the story (2, 6, 17, and 24 are strong contenders too) and is a bit pointless. In hindsight I should probably have made the N battle more interesting.

Q: Interesting. I'm really curious about what species Thomas and Febby are, and you really ended this well. White is the counterpart to Black or something, right? Febby must be something interesting, indeed.

A: Yes, White is meant to be the female player character of Black and White versions, while Black is the male player character. And, well, you know the answer to Thomas and Febby's species already, and that Boreas certainly thought Febby was something interesting indeed.

Q: Correct, "mephistophelian" is an excellent word. Shame you couldn't use it here. Love the story, but there's just one problem; the kissing part.

It just seems that two eeveelutions wouldn't kiss like people, but either rub their noses together or kiss like dogs do, where they, I guess "exchange tongues". Just wondering why you didn't do that instead.

A: I got to use Mephistophelean later on once or twice. I think Octa uses it in chapter 33. As for the kissing, well I suppose they might rub their noses together instead, but there are three reasons they don't: firstly, Eeveelutions, despite being based on foxes, have a more or less flat face like a human instead of a snout like a fox; so they could kiss like humans do easily. Secondly, a kiss seems a lot more intimate and sweet than rubbing noses together. Thirdly and most importantly; most of my readers are, in fact, human. Humans tend to like kissing. I know I do.

Q: Bleeaah. Kissing scenes are disgusting.

A: Well, I guess you don't.

Q: Just wondering, you said Capella the Dratini got some of the worst wounds from the Poison Type battle. Doesn't Dratini have the ability Shed Skin? Doesn't that mean they can't be poisoned?

A: Shed Skin doesn't make poisoning impossible, it just has a chance to make it wear off each turn. Which is probably how she survived it in the first place. Too bad it doesn't work on Hyper Beams.

Q: Octa, you jerk! Toxica is totally in love with you and you're all "no way" just because she's not a Snivy-lution. Pound some sense into your overgrown head!

A: Well, it's not just because she isn't a Snivy-lution. He also said he wasn't attracted to her and that she wasn't well-bred. But yes, I agree, Octa should stop being so arrogant and snobbish about it.

Q: I also thought the part about the five moons was very clever; but sometimes you reference (Earthian?) places, like Antartica, and considering this is the Pokemon world, I don't really get that.

A: Well, the pokémon world isn't so much a different planet as a different version of Earth. Notice that the characters call their planet Earth. As you said, I indeed mention real-world locations like Antarctica and real-world people like Victoria and Augustus on occasion. So it's basically the same planet, but with some differences, like the existence of pokémon, different continents (though Antarctica is more or less the same) and five moons. Gravity is also about three percent weaker and the air contains two percent more oxygen.

Anyway, thanks for all your reviews, I love them!


	39. Umbra

Chapter Thirty-Nine: Umbra

Black and his pokémon walked through Chargestone Cave in a sombre silence for several days. With the loss of their friend a crushing wave of despair had overcome all of them. Before Capella's death, Chargestone Cave had seemed like an adventurous, mysterious, and bizarre cave full of strange mysteries. Now it was like a dark, sombre, and Sunless tomb. Without the Sun, the darkness n their hearts was matched by the darkness of the surroundings. They rarely spoke to each other, and when they did it was a short, shallow conversation; all of them were too preoccupied with Capella's death to talk about something else, yet they couldn't talk about that either because it hurt too much.

They progressed slowly because of all their wounds and broken bones. With no pokécenter in sight for weeks, it was likely most of the bad wounds would become scars. Octa was the only member of the team without broken bones or bad wounds. Toxica had had a large part of her flower cut off (though that would fortunately regrow in spring) and a broken arm. Lucius had broken two legs and had several ugly cuts. Selene had had her wing crushed, a bit of her beak chipped off, and cuts on her belly. Boreas had lost the tip of his tail from the Hyper Beam that annihilated Capella, had a nasty gash on his face that promised to become a quite prominent scar, and the whip marks on his back from where Tangrowth had flayed him might become scars too. Black had a broken leg and cuts all along his arm and torso.

Black had treated all wounds and set all broken bones, including his own, with skill, but it didn't compare to the cares of a proper nurse and a healing machine.

Just a day earlier, the thought of having to go through the rest of his life with the tip of his tail missing and a disfiguring scar on his face would've horrified Boreas, but now he just didn't care. He'd happily have his entire tail chopped off and his face disfigured much worse if it'd bring Capella back. He had to fight his tears as he remembered the smile she'd given him before she sacrificed herself to save him and the skeletal grimace after the Hyper Beam had killed her. The horrific image of her ravaged body's final moments would stay burned onto his eyes forever, he was sure of that.

_Why did she do it?_ he thought morosely. _Why did she sacrifice herself?_

_Because that's what she was like. Saving herself before me was something she could never have done._

_But she should have! I will die in seventy years at most anyway... She had a whole millennium ahead of her._

_She would never have made such an important decision so calculatingly... She'd never choose herself over a friend based on simple arithmetic._

_I should never have put her before that choice... If only I'd helped Lucius finish Tangrowth off before I went to save Toxica..._

"_Then you'd probably be mourning Toxica's death now instead of mine," _a kind voice spoke in his mind.

Boreas felt incredibly happy for just a moment before he realised it was just his imagination. _Great, now I'm imagining dead people's voices in my head. Couldn't be better._

"_Yes, you are, I'm afraid. But that doesn't mean you're going crazy. After all, you know I'm just your imagination trying to cope with a loss, not actually Capella's spirit."_

_I wish you were Capella's spirit... I so want to talk to her. But I know I'll never talk to her again... She's dead, and there's nothing I can do about it any more. It's horrible._ He couldn't hold his tears back by now and cried as he walked.

"_You're right. But you can talk to me instead."_

_Oh, perfect. A good round of talking to myself, I'm sure that'll be a great substitute for Capella._

"_Talking to your memory of me. I may be dead, but I am still in your heart and mind."_

_But I can't talk to you, that's the problem! I wish I could, because you always gave me hope and I could bloody use some right now. But you're dead, it's over! Not only can I never talk to you again, but you don't even exist any more! Sure, your body still exists, buried in the ground, and your blood still exists, drenching my fur, but your thoughts, your feelings, your personality, the things that really made you you? They're all gone forever!_

"_But all those things are still here, in your memories! If they weren't, we wouldn't even be having this conversation."_

_But that's not real! Those are just memories inside my head!_

"_Of course they're just inside your head, but why would that mean they're any less real? Think of all the good times you had with me, were they not real?"_

_Of course they were, but those good times are gone!_

"_Not in your mind. You remember them, don't you?"_

_But that's not the same! They're over!_

"_Yes, but you still remember them and me. That is important."_

_What does it matter whether I remember them? Capella is still dead, and whether or not I remember her won't change anything about that._

"_It changes your feelings. I may be gone, but I'm not gone for you, not really."_

_But you're gone for yourself! What do my feelings matter?_

"_What makes you think I mind being dead? The very fact that I'm dead makes it impossible for me to have any emotions about the matter. I probably didn't want to die while I was alive, but now that I'm dead I don't want anything any more. Whether I'm dead or not, like all other things, is something I don't care about any more, on account of being dead. Your feelings are more important than mine right now, Boreas, because mine don't exist any more."_

_No, they aren't! So maybe you don't literally care about it any more, but think of all that could've been! You could've lived happily for a thousand years... All the things you missed... Nine hundred years of happiness gone, oh Giratina, I could cry about it... And am, in fact. I remember when you were trying to cheer me up after Febby showed up with that prat Esper, and you mentioned you might find a girl you really loved and would spend the rest of your life with during my great-great-grandchildren's lifetime... And now that will never happen..._

"_Yes, that is a shame, but I lived a hundred and eight years, Boreas! I lived a very long life, much longer than you're likely to live."_

_Long for me perhaps, but it was short for you! You shouldn't have had to die!_

"_But the reality is, I did. What do you think I would tell you if I was here?"_

_Why don't _you_ tell _me_? _You're_ supposed to be my memory of her!_

"_Don't mourn for me. This is my destiny. Hold your head high and remember my life with happiness, not my death with sadness. I was nothing before I was born, and now I am nothing once more. Overall I lost nothing, I just got a hundred and eight great years of life as a short break between endless seas of non-existence."_

_You expect me to cheer up and be happy when you were so brutally taken from my life? How could I ever be happy again?_

"_Bleak though things may seem right now, you will eventually get over my death, like you got over the deaths of your family. Then you'll remember my life with happiness, instead of focusing on my death."_

_How can I be happy for your life if it's my fault you're dead? If I hadn't allowed Lilligant to let us end up battling next to each other, Tangrowth could only have caught one of us, and you could've saved whomever it was!_

"_You might as well blame Lucius; if he hadn't burnt Tangrowth so badly your Ice Beams would've hurt it enough that we could each have saved ourselves."_

_But I've done so much more! If I hadn't lured Ferrothorn towards you we would never have ended up being caught by Tangrowth together! If I had listened to Selene we might've detected the Shadow Triad before they caught Black! If I had come up with a plan earlier we might've defeated Ryoku before it was too late! If I had left the team and gone with Aqua..._ His thoughts trailed off as he came to a horrible realisation. _I made the wrong decision. Oh, Rayquaza, I made the wrong choice! I should've gone with Aqua, but I didn't and now Capella died for it!_

"_That's not-"_

_Enough! I don't want to pretend Capella is still alive by talking to memories! She's dead and it's my fault!_ Something in him recognised that the only ones who were really to blame for her death were Ryoku and his pokémon, but he wasn't really interested in thinking sensibly now. The image of Capella's face, still alive but with most of the flesh blasted off her skull, was burnt in his mind forever. His fur was still drenched in her blood after three days; because of all the wounds that had needed cleaning, Black simply didn't have enough water to clean Capella's blood out of Boreas' fur too and now he walked around in her blood as a horrific reminder of her death.

Boreas felt as dark and gloomy as the tomb-like Chargestone Cave itself. Depressed, mournful, guilt-torn, and with gruesome images stuck in his brain of the death of the one person who had been best at cheering him up, his morbid mood was enlightened by only one light of hope... Aqua. He wanted to see her again more than anything now. He wanted to hold her, to cry on her shoulder, for her to whisper consolations in his ear with her sweet voice, and for her soft lips to restore his joy with a kiss... The thought of Aqua was all that kept him from just giving up out of pure misery.

–

They reached a three-way split in the cave. Black was about to lead them into one of the other directions when they heard sounds of other travellers come from the other way. Black curiously shone his torch into that way, and all thoughts disappeared from Boreas' mind. He ran at the most beautiful creature in the universe, by some miracle right here in the cave, pounced her with joy, and kissed her, letting all the sorrow disappear from his mind for a moment.

"Aqua..." Boreas happily spoke.

"My dear fellow," Octa gravely spoke. "Tear your gaze away from her eyes for one moment and look at her companions.

Boreas hadn't even bothered to look at her companions until now. He took a few steps back as he felt as if he'd been lost in a desert for days, then found a jug of water just as he thought he'd die of thirst, only to find out after drinking it that it was sulphuric acid, not water. Behind Aqua stood a human in white clothes with long green hair and a Zoroark grinning cruelly, as well as some pokémon Boreas didn't know. The human and the Zoroark were all too familiar to him, though: N and Diego.

"No." Boreas could almost hear the sound of his heart shattering. "No!"

Aqua looked at him sadly as he stepped backwards. "Boreas, I'm sorry."

"No! You-you're with _them_!"

"I can explain, Boreas."

"Can you?" Boreas spat, "Let me just ask you one thing: are you with N out of your own free will?"

"Yes, but-"

The dust that was left of Boreas' heart burst into a burning flame of pure hate. "No buts, Aqua. How could you?" He asked as he stared furiously into her treacherous eyes. "You betrayed me!"

–

AUTHOR'S NOTES: This cheerful little chapter is the exact middle of the story. 38 chapters before it, 38 after it (don't worry, they won't all be as dark and gloomy as this one). Though the exact middle word or letter is probably a few chapters later, because many of the earliest chapters are pretty short.

I want to thank everyone who reviewed the last chapter. I posted that chapter at 2 in the night, just before going to bed, dreading that when I wake up there would be indifferent or cheerful reviews. The many sad reviews really made my day.

FEEDBACK: UmbraFox: Q: Fantastic story. Lovin it! By the way, shouldn't the giallo guy be wearing like silver or grey robes? I always acciciate yellow with electric-types and I don't know how it has anything to do with steel.

A: The colour of robes the Sages wear is actually a reference to their names. Each of them (except for Ghetsis) has the name of a colour in a certain language. Rood is Dutch for red, Gorm is Gaelic for blue, etc. Giallo is Italian for yellow. But, you might ask, why didn't I have him use the electric-type, then? The thing is, if you don't count the Striaton Gym leaders, the Gym Leaders and Elite Four of Unova specialise in 11 of the 17 types together. That leaves six types: fire, water, grass, rock, steel, and poison. Therefore I decided to have each of the other Sages specialise in one of these types, so over the course of the story a specialist of each type is battled. I tried to fit each type with the colour that worked best, and steel and yellow were just left over. That's why Giallo wears yellow robes and uses steel types.

flashers: Q: Sorry not to write this review in English, but I can not express all the emotions I feel right now as my native language.

A: No problem. I had to translate it using Google Translate, though, as my French is barely good enough to ask someone their name or order bread at the baker. I hope it doesn't mistranslate anything.

Q: I expected this chapter forward, I felt that he was going to be good. As expected it was exciting, the travels of Boreas in this fight was exciting and made me feel a moment a thrill in every cell of my body, wonderful. The highlight of the pleasure I took to read this chapter was complicity in the Battle of Boreas and Capella, I find it lovely in the middle of this disaster.

A: Thanks, it's great to hear you liked the battle so much.

Q: And there, Spock, you made me suffer much from the top of my cloud of literary pleasure, you made me fall with the death of Capella, which is by far my favorite character in this story, and I felt a great emptiness in my chest, and I wonder if you feel as bad as me for his death.

I will continue to have trouble with your fanfiction Capella less.

A: Sorry for killing off your favourite character. I felt very bad about it too, though probably not as bad as you, because I've known she was doomed since before she was even introduced into the story. But I remember how bad I felt when Sirius Black, my favourite character in Harry Potter, died. I both hope you feel as bad as that and don't (I don't hope it because it really felt quite bad, and at the same time I hope you do because it would say a thing or two about my skills as a writer if I can move people's hearts that much).

Q: and I will take this comment to tell you that your style and your ideas are really good.

We never forget you Capella! : '(

A: Thanks, and I hope you can forgive me for killing her off.

The Bulbafinatic: Q: Just curious, and extremely excited about your story; about how long does it take you to make a chapter? Then how long to upload it? I can't handle the pressure!

A: It depends. I like writing a lot, so it's usually somewhere between two days and a week for a new chapter to appear. I'm glad you enjoy the story so much, and I hope you'll keep leaving comments.


	40. Eclipse

Chapter Forty: Eclipse

"I didn't betray you, Boreas," Aqua said ruefully.

"You joined Team Plasma!" Boreas roared furiously. "You're here with N and Diego! Of course you betrayed me, N is Team Plasma's leader and Diego... Diego is an all-round bastard who went out of his way to torture me!"

Diego interrupted Aqua's response. "How's the tail, Boreas?" he grinned.

Boreas really wanted to kill Diego. He had sworn to after the Zoroark had hung him from the Ferris wheel by his tail, after all, but he had more important matters to deal with right now. "I'll deal with you later," he spat.

"Listen Boreas," Aqua explained, "I know you're upset and-"

"Upset?" Boreas exclaimed. "Upset? No, how could I be? After all, the only thing that happened is my girlfriend betraying me to the people who murdered Capella!"

"Capella is dead?" Aqua asked at the same time as N, who had been talking to a similarly furious Black.

"Yes." Boreas spoke furiously. "Murdered by your Sage Ryoku. Truly a man as pleasant as he is fat. He had his pokémon execute her. This blood in my fur is hers. The same blood is on your paws now, Aqua."

Aqua looked very sad. "Boreas, I didn't know-"

"You didn't know?" Boreas bellowed, "Didn't know what? That Team Plasma is a gang of filthy murderers? Because I distinctly remember telling you all about them and the things they've done! They tried to kill me many time, set me on fire, broke my legs, and had me swallowed alive among other things! Don't lie to me, you knew all about them but just didn't care!"

"Boreas, there's-"

"And don't you dare give me that Leppa metaphor! There's not just one rotten Leppa in this basket, all of them are filthy and rotten to the core! And so are you, you traitor! Let me guess: you joined those bastards to get your revenge on the humans for killing your darling Lothario? Because clearly you loved _him_ enough to mope about him for months and hate a whole species for him, while _I_ can just be thrown away and betrayed like a piece of rubbish!"

Boreas could see anger rising in Aqua, but so far she managed to keep calm. "No. This has nothing to do with Lothario, and I wish you wouldn't talk like that. After you and I separated, I became incredibly lonely again-"

"Oh, what a convenient excuse! You were lonely, so you joined those murdering bastards! You're a pathetic traitor!"

Aqua looked angry now. "What if-"

"What if nothing! You betrayed me, you bitch!"

Suddenly Aqua burst out furiously. "BOREAS!" she roared, "now you listen to me! I didn't betray you, I just made a different choice than you! I'm not a servant you can order around, I _was_ your girlfriend! I have a right to make my own choice!"

"You chose to side with those murderers, and now you're an accessory to Capella's death! That is not a choice, it's treason!"

"N is not like the Sages! N is a very good man, and would never harm anyone! He's a true hero, and if you knew just what he was planning..."

Boreas laughed a fake, hollow laughter. "He's the leader of them all, so he's responsible! Besides, he's helping the Sages' plan by working with them! You know, their plan to satisfy their thirst for power under the pretence of liberating pokémon?"

"The Sages are only human. Yes, they are evil people, but they're on our side. We work together with them, but they're not N! I did not join them, I joined N!"

"He is responsible just as much as they are. And what about that git Diego, I take it he's just a friendly, good person too? I'm sure he only hung me from the Ferris wheel to give my back a nice stretching! How could you join them after all I told you?"

"I didn't even know who they were for ages! Diego used his illusion to mask them both. And yes, he's a much better person than you think! I told him what a bastard he was for what he did to you, but now I see you probably deserved it! I would never have thought you were such a hard-headed, oppressive fascist! What makes you think you have the right to decide my opinions? I thought you'd accept my choice after some initial misgivings, but you're much less flexible and considerate than I thought."

"I should be considerate of you betraying me to those egotistical, murdering bastards?"

"I-did-not-betray-you!" Aqua seethed, "I didn't tell N anything you told me! This is _my_ choice! Mine! Not yours! Just because I kissed you and thought we had something together doesn't mean I'm yours to command!"

"'Had something together', hah! You were just winning information from me, using me, you filthy slut! And all this, just to avenge Lothario and not to go lonely! Boohoo, well if you're lonely maybe it's just that no-one likes you, and with good reason!"

"I was such an idiot to believe you would support my choice! You're a blind, inconsiderate fascist, and pokémon like you are the reason humans keep treating us the way they do! I thought you loved me and would support me no matter what, but now I can see what you're truly like! When you looked at me or complimented my looks I always thought you were actually interested in me, but now I can see you just liked my looks. You couldn't care less about _me_, it's just my body you want, isn't it, you heartless bastard?"

"Oh, I see, _I_'m the one who betrayed our relationship now, how silly of me to think that was _you_ for siding with my enemies! Maybe I _was_ fooled by your looks! They made me think there was a beautiful person underneath them, but now I see that pretty face hides an evil mind! You're an evil, treacherous heartbreaker, Aqua!"

"How typical. You never even considered another point of view, did you? Just because _you_'ve had good experiences with a human makes you think you're his friend, and humans are good! Let me tell you, humans are evil! N is the only exception, because he was raised by pokémon instead of his own disgusting kind! Humans will keep oppressing pokémon forever if it was up to you! Even after I told you all the humans had done to me, you didn't care! I always accepted your opinion of matters, because I thought I genuinely liked you and you liked me. But now I see you never liked anything beyond my beauty, and I just liked you because you were the first meaningful contact I had had in months! But now I have _real _friends, and we will change the world for the better, without you!"

"What about you, then? No matter what I told you, you kept supporting Plasma, and now you're one of them!" Boreas, blinded with hate, only now noticed N and Black were battling: Toxica was fighting a Ferroseed. "But that's enough talk. You are my enemy, and I fight my enemies."

"Fine!" spat Aqua, "There's no way I'll ever get through your thick skull with words alone!"

Both stepped forward, about to attack each other, when Octa suddenly stepped between them. "Enough! My dear fellow, I shan't allow you to destroy what's left of your relationship with her like this."

"Get out of the way, Octa! She's with Team Plasma and I'm going to get her for it!"

"I wouldn't get out of the way if she had personally killed Capella. 'Tis my duty as your friend not to let you do something you'll regret for the rest of your life. _I_ shall battle her in your stead."

Maybe something deep in Boreas recognised Octa was right. If it did, it was completely drowned out by the roaring fires of hate incinerating his heart. "Keep your haughty nose out of my business, you inbred twit! If you don't step away right now, I'll Ice Beam your arrogant face until your meddlesome brain literally freezes in your skull so you can personally go tell your idiotic ancestors of the trouble you got in for being a meddlesome nuisance!"

Boreas realised as he shouted it that he'd gone way too far. Octa's deeply insulted face told him the same. He realised he shouldn't have talked to Octa like that, but his anger was just far too great to contain.

"Fine," Octa spoke icily. "Do it, then. Why should I care if you ruin your life with your own stupidity?" he stepped aside.

They were about to battle when N commanded: "Aqua, switch for Jacob! Nothing good will come of this fight!"

"No way!" Aqua yelled, "this is between me and him! Don't you dare interfere! Any of you!"

"Ready then, traitor?" Boreas sneered.

"Ready to destroy you," Aqua replied.

The battle erupted at incredible speed. Beams of water and ice hit each other in mid-air, narrow parries and absorptions were executed, wind and water gyred through the cave furiously. The fires of love that had once burned in their hearts now burned as brightly with all-consuming hate. They wanted nothing more than to hurt and kill the other. Boreas used ice-attacks so cold they liquefied bits of air into a horribly painful rain that was much colder than ice and Aqua used Scald to blast boiling water at Boreas in an attempt to burn him. So far neither of them had managed to hit the other, but it was only a matter of time before they succeeded.

"I can't believe I let you even _touch _me! How could I have been so blind not to see what you are really like?" Boreas raged.

"You're blind about many more things, Boreas!" Aqua sneered as she blasted boiling water at him. "Like which side is in the right, and which side is going to win! Your dogmatic adherence to the evil _and_ the losing side will be your undoing!"

Aqua shot a beam of boiling water right at Boreas, and he immediately countered it with an Ice Beam. But she didn't stop, she just kept firing it and Boreas kept stopping it with the continuous Ice Beam. Massive clouds of steam formed with terrifying hisses at the point where they connected. That point approached Boreas, so he put more power into his Ice Beam to stop it. The power of both their attacks rose, and soon they were both fully concentrating on bringing even more power into their attack. Boreas realised this wasn't going to work and used slightly less power, so he could make a freezing wind of ice to blast Aqua from the left.

The Icy Wind hit her at the same moment that Boreas' Ice Beam gave up under the blast of boiling water. They both screamed in agony as their attacks hit their targets.

Diego was watching their battle with a wide grin. "Boreas, did she tell you she's now _my_ mate yet?"

"What are- Yes, indeed I am. That hurts, doesn't it, Boreas?" Aqua grinned.

"How could you?" Boreas asked as he summoned more and more cold.

"After how you treated me, you dare to ask that?"

"No," Boreas grinned, "I meant physically. How did it fit in? He's twice as large as you! Unless of course... either or both of you has parts that aren't to scale."

Diego roared in fury at that and tried to attack Boreas, but was caught in the crossfire of boiling water and Ice Beams burning and freezing him.

Since Diego had absorbed both their attacks they both had an opening in their defences for a moment and a chance to approach each other. Boiling clouds of steam and freezing clouds of hail collided at the same moment that the two Eevees did. They tore at each other, using tooth and claw as their weapons while clouds of steam and ice scalded and froze them. As he bit Aqua's flank, drawing a lot of blood, Boreas finally heard the voice in his mind that asked him what in the name of all legendaries he was doing, which told him that this was deeply wrong. But only for a moment, as he let his hate flow through him, incinerating his every fibre, and he listened to the voice that told him to hurt Aqua physically as much as she'd hurt him mentally instead.

The pain caused by the steam and the wounds Aqua inflicted only increased Boreas' hate for her. Even more so than when Capella had just died, he was a mad, hate-driven cyclone of revenge. They were entangled, trying to bite each others' throat, for several minutes before they somehow broke loose and stood facing each other.

"Enough playing around!" Aqua yelled, "Let me show you my true power!"

"You're right, time for the gloves to come off!"

A massive river of water flowed into the cave at the same moment that Boreas summoned a ferocious Blizzard he couldn't even control properly. Boreas was caught in the wave of water as the Blizzard made it rain hail and liquid air. The wave bashed into and around him several times with impacts like powerful punches. It whirled around him, grabbing him and attempting to break his bones with its phenomenal power. Boreas saw the furious Aqua swim in the water a few metres away, trying her very best to control as much of it as she could.

He made the Blizzard lash out at and she screamed in pain as she was pelted with hail and liquid air and her skin began to freeze. But then the water pulled Boreas under with a mighty current. He struggled and tried to swim back to the surface, but it was far too powerful and he soon began running out of air. He saw Aqua's elegant form under water, no doubt grinning as she drowned him.

He burnt with rage and he channelled it into an intense pulse of cold that rapidly froze the water around him into ice. It was easy to make the rapidly freezing water push him back to the surface and allow him to breathe. His body froze in, but he hardly noticed as he continued letting Neptunian amounts of cold freeze more and more of the water. It froze so fast the waves and currents that had flowed through it were still visible in the ice. Aqua looked terrified at the freezing perimeter rapidly approaching her. Freezing all this water cost Boreas incredible amounts of energy and he couldn't control it, but he didn't care, only having thoughts for freezing Aqua.

Aqua tried her best to stop the advancing ice. A pulse of boiling water expanded from her and met the perimeter of freezing water. Boreas concentrated on freezing the water while Aqua tried to boil it with all her might. The water on the perimeter boiled and froze at the same time, making the most incredible noises. The edge slowly crawled to Aqua, but Boreas was increasingly getting exhausted, and soon the edge began moving back. He looked at Aqua's firmly concentrated face and realised just how much he hated her for all that she'd done to him. The hate empowered him, and the ice's edge moved back to Aqua. But now he was getting so exhausted that black spots danced before his eyes and he felt his consciousness slipping away rapidly.

He gave one last massive pushed and relished in Aqua's screams of pain as the water around her froze. Boreas tried to freeze her with his final bit of power. But she launched another counter-offensive. This time Boreas had no strength and almost no consciousness left to fight her, yet he tried. As his vision went black he heard noises approach him closer and closer, and then he felt a terrible, boiling pain. But only for a moment before he blacked out.

–

Boreas awoke in pain all over. Then he wished he hadn't woken up at all as he remembered the fight with Aqua. He hated her, and yet he felt like he had done a horrible thing in fighting her.

"Boreas, you're awake!" Black said happily.

Boreas sighed morosely and with self-loathing. They were still in the same place, but N had left. Boreas' skin ached, but it seemed neither the burns nor the wounds were very bad. Aqua's water had also washed most of Capella's blood out of his fur.

"That was the same Vaporeon you met in Driftveil, wasn't it?" Black asked sadly.

Boreas said nothing.

"I'm sorry. I should've returned you to your pokéball, prevented you from fighting her..."

"You couldn't have stopped me," Boreas said flatly.

"About an hour. Toxica stepped in when you fainted to prevent that Vaporeon from boiling you to death. She defeated her, and in the end we won..."

Boreas just said nothing. He caught Octa's eye for a moment and immediately wished he hadn't. Octa gave him such a withering, furious look. With terrible despair, Boreas realised the three people he cared most for where all lost to him in some way. Capella was dead, Octa was so furious at him he might never forgive him, and Aqua had betrayed him.

–

FEEDBACK: Okami Saphira: Q: Wow, another excellent chapter! I love the plot twist! Aqua is with N? =o What's going to happen next? I highly doubt that any explanation by Aqua will be enough to convince Boreas. I think he just lost the love of his life...

A: I'm afraid you may be right...

fractalman: Q: Aqua standing peaceably by...Diego? 0.o

N I could understand, but Diego's the one who went out of his way to torture boreas...even if it was in retaliation for a cheap-shot.

Still, you'd better have a good reason for THAT up ahead.

A: I hinted at it in this chapter, but in his anger Boreas never let Aqua finish her explanation. But we'll get it later, don't worry.

Sir Raymond Quaza: Q: ..You know, I always suspected that Boreas would end up fighting with Aqua with her backng Team Plasma.

...That didn't make it hurt any less when I actually read that scene.

A: You're not the only one, a couple of other readers expected it too. I did, after all, foreshadow it. Still, points for your perceptiveness.

The Man With No Name: Q: really like the story, tis' a true work of art. I am desperately waiting for chapter 40. until it comes i doubt i will find something better to read

A: Thanks, I really love to hear that. And chapter forty is here right now!


	41. In the Dead of Night

Chapter Forty-One: In the Dead of Night

Boreas woke up in sweat, feeling nauseous and horrible. He trembled with fury, self-loathing, and guilt. He had barely slept the past week because of the way his dreams tormented him, and tonight was no different. The dreams were of course about Aqua, as most of his dreams had been since meeting her. But for the past week what used to be a source of very pleasant dreams was now a source of nightly torment. The dreams by themselves weren't even that bad, except for the one where he relived their fight. In fact they were quite similar to the ones he used to have before finding out she had betrayed him. But the way they made him feel was completely different. They only reminded him of what he'd lost now.

Boreas wanted to be alone. He stood up and silently sneaked away from the camp where his companions were sleeping peacefully. The eternal semi-darkness of Chargestone Cave was the same whether it was day or night. He pointlessly walked for a bit until he reached a deep gorge. Down in the depths mighty sparks flared occasionally. He sat down at the edge to look into it.

He felt as if his life had fallen into a deep, black gorge of despair, much like this one except more metaphorical and with less lightning sparks. Just ten days ago, his greatest worry had been Octa's silly determination to let his family choose his mate. Now his best friend was furious at him, his second-best friend was dead, and his girlfriend... Well, she was his girlfriend no more. He still couldn't believe the girl he loved had joined Team Plasma. It was treason of the worst kind, and he hated her for it, yet he cringed in shame and guilt when he remembered the things he'd said to her. Now that the fury had disappeared he felt horrible about his words and deeds. He realised he would never have reacted like that if it hadn't been for the fresh wound of Capella's death. Of course, he would've been furious at the treason regardless, but never in such a horribly nasty way. And Capella would've stopped him, and she wouldn't have gotten angry and given up even if he had insulted her like he had insulted Octa.

The horrible things they had both said during their fight kept echoing through his mind, even when he was awake. And it had only gotten worse as his sleep deprivation caused him to be only half awake at best. There was nothing he could do to take his mind off it: most of his other memories just weren't powerful enough. Those of Octa and Capella were quite powerful but only made it worse because they reminded him of what he had lost; memories of the blissful days he had had with Aqua were even worse. There was nothing he could do in the present to take his mind off it either: the dark environment of Chargestone Cave offered no distractions and neither his companions nor he were in the mood for conversation. Even the future offered no relief: his hopes and dreams seemed to have shattered or become hollow. Becoming the Champion would never bring back Capella or make Aqua's treason, or at least the things he'd said to her, undone. The awesome glory of helping Black become the most powerful trainer in Unova seemed empty and bleak. Stopping Team Plasma seemed impossible. Even getting revenge for Capella and his destroyed life didn't seem to hold that much appeal now that his anger was gone. It didn't matter anyway: he realised now how much luck they'd had not to lose any party members before, and that they should really all have been dead five times over already. Team Plasma was just too mighty, there was no stopping them. Aqua had probably been right when she had said Team Plasma was the winning side.

Aqua had said she had joined N out of loneliness. The realisation that she was lonely because Boreas had chosen not to go with her crushed him with guilt. She would never have joined N if he had been there. He had made the wrong choice, and it had destroyed his life. He'd gladly give up what little was left of it to have made the right choice. The things that had happened since he made his choices, the things that had been said could never be reversed. Aqua would never forgive him, and he would never forgive her. And he wouldn't forgive himself either.

Everything seemed to be gone now. Happiness, joy, hope, and love. Anger and hate had taken their place at first, but now even they had gone. Boreas was left with nothing but mountains of sorrow, guilt, and despair. He stood up and looked into the depths of the gorge. He'd jump in without hesitation if it meant undoing all this. In fact, as he looked into it those depths felt very attractive even if they didn't undo anything. He longed for his despair and guilt to be gone, and couldn't help but think that just a small step forward would take them away forever.

What did he have to live for? He had lost everything, and there was no way to get it back. A shiver went through him as Aqua saying he had only been interested in her looks echoed through his mind, and he cringed as he remembered his reply. Was he really only interested in her looks? She was gorgeous, there was no doubt about it, but Boreas was sure he'd been interested in more. He loved talking to her, listening to her, and had supported her when she was at her weakest... How could she say he was only interested in her looks?

With regret he knew exactly how she could say that as he remembered his reaction to her choice. He had called it treason and yelled at her for it, deeply insulted her. Yet, though he still thought it was treason, he had to agree that it was typically her choice. It was something she really believed in, and he had hated her for it, despite his claims of loving her.

The memories to the happy, carefree days he'd spent with her in Driftveil made him feel even worse, if such a thing was possible. The gorge seemed to beckon. Just one step forwards, and it would all be over. No more despair, no more guilt, no more sorrow, no more horrible memories. Just one step, and gravity would take care of the rest. He'd never even feel the impact, it'd be quite painless.

He lifted his paw, but something in him held him back. But he asked that something what he had to lose. His life was over and he was dead inside, he might as well make it official. He stepped on, put his paw into the empty air, and tumbled into the gorge.

–

Aqua trembled with anger as she remembered the names Boreas had called her. She had made the choice to fight for what's right with her friends, and he dared call her a traitor for it? She couldn't believe she had once loved him. Clearly that had been a complete mistake, and she'd only liked him because he was the first person she'd talked to in ages. Obviously she had never really been in love at all with him, so what did she care about his opinion? He was just some annoying, close-minded Glaceon who had joined the wrong side. She didn't care at all about his opinion or him.

So why was it she trembled with fury and had to fight tears whenever the things he'd said echoed through her mind? Clearly it must just be that she was sensitive to others' opinion of her. She would've reacted the exact same if Octa had said that, or-

_Oh, who am I trying to fool? _Aqua sighed, _obviously I was completely in love with him, before I found out what a bastard he really is._

She remembered the happy days she'd spent with him with pain in her heart. After all those months of sad loneliness, she had been completely mesmerised by the cute, witty, charming and kind Glaceon. She remembered how happy and flattered she had felt whenever she'd caught him staring at her. She had been so sure she would have a wonderful future with him... She had thought he felt the same way about her, but now she knew better. He had been interested in nothing but her looks. If he really loved her, he would've accepted and supported her choice, as she'd expected him to do.

_Or was he right? Maybe I did betray him... _A small voice inside her said.

_Never! He just couldn't accept my choice, accept me! He wants to dominate me and direct my choices, but I won't let him! _She furiously silenced the voice.

It had taken her just one day, one single day, to become miserable after she'd said goodbye to Boreas when he left Driftveil. She'd been utterly mistaken: loneliness felt even worse with lovesickness added to it. Her feelings told her to get to Mistralton as soon as possible, though she knew it would take Boreas more than a month to get there too.

Three days after they had said their goodbye, Aqua had stopped at the riverbanks for the evening when it had all become too much and she'd cried.

–

_Past_

"Hey, beautiful," a voice said sympathetically, "don't cry, I'm sure whatever it is will get better."

Aqua turned around with start and saw a Jolteon grinning at her charmingly. "Don't sneak up on me like that! Who are you and what do you want?"

"Sorry. My name is Diego, and I want to bring a smile to those pretty cheeks. Surely whatever it is will feel better if you share it with me."

"Diego?" Aqua frowned.

"Yes, that's my name. If you don't like it, feel free to think of a nickname."

"Oh, no, it's just that name reminds me of someone. Some bastard Zoroark who once hung my boyfriend from a Ferris wheel by his tail."

The face Diego made caused Aqua to burst into laughter. "Yeah, I know it sounds bizarre, but there's a long story behind it."

"Yeah," Diego grinned, "It certainly does sound bizarre. So, that sounds like it was painful to your boyfriend. I mean, he could lose his tail that way..."

"Oh, not to worry. His tail was still attractive. Uh, I meant attached." Aqua blushed at her little slip.

"Well, that's great. So, where is your boyfriend then? I'd love to hear this story from him."

"He's travelling to Mistralton with his trainer. I'm travelling there separately because I don't like humans."

A cunning grin flashed over Diego's face, but was immediately exchanged for a friendly smile. "Don't like humans and headed for Mistralton? Well, isn't that a coincidence, I don't like humans either, and I'm travelling by Mistralton with a friend – he's a pokémon, of course. Why don't you travel with us?"

Aqua's heart brightened at the chance of travelling with companions, especially the nice Jolteon. "I'd love to! I hope your friend won't object..."

"What, object to such a pretty girl joining us? Never. C'mon, let's go to the place where I agreed to meet him."

–

Diego took her to a clearing nearby where they waited for his friend while they chatted amicably. Finally a Slowking entered the clearing.

"Norin," Diego immediately greeted the Slowking, "great to see you again!"

The Slowking frowned in puzzlement for a moment, then greeted Diego. "Hi, Diego. I see you had more luck with finding new friends than I did."

"Yeah," Diego grinned. "This is Aqua. Aqua, this is my friend Norin."

Aqua greeted Norin. "So... You two were actually looking for new friends? Why?"

"Well," Norin explained, "we are on a mission. A mission to make a perfect world. Did you tell her yet, Diego?"

"No, you tell it better."

"Okay. Well, Aqua, have you ever heard of Zekrom?"

"Of course," said Aqua, "it's one of the legendary dragons that were created when the original dragon of Unova was split into two."

"Yes. The original dragon was split into two by the foolish humans commanding it. Humans are unlike pokémon, selfish and evil, and so they caused the dragon to split by their enmity. Zekrom embodies ideals, and I have a dream of a perfect world where humans and pokémon are separated. An ideal world, where pokémon can finally be perfect beings. But I won't achieve that by force: I will reawaken Zekrom, and together we will defeat the most powerful human trainers. Then everyone will see how perfect free pokémon are and liberate their pokémon."

"But what about people who don't liberate their pokémon? And why do you need me?"

"You underestimate Zekrom's power. And I need you to help me become friends with Zekrom and to get to Dragonspiral Tower, where we can summon it."

Aqua thought it was great she could actually do something about the humans in this way, and very much wanted to help Norin, but there was one problem. "I can help you along, but I have to stay behind in Mistralton. I promised my boyfriend I'd wait for him there. But I'd be delighted to help you until then."

–

_Present_

Aqua had thought for two weeks that N was a pokémon, before Diego finally dropped the illusions masking the both of them. Aqua had been furious and attacked both her new friends. But she realised that even with the deception they were still the only friends she had at the moment. She didn't want to go back to being lonely and alone. Besides, Boreas hadn't really told her anything bad about N, and she couldn't help but agree with him, and he really had a good plan. She had a very hard time to trust a human, though. But N explained that he had been raised by pokémon ever since he was a child. He believed his parents had been pokémon, and he had been born in the form of a human to be able to convince the humans their ways of treating pokémon were wrong. Ghetsis and the other Sages had decided to help him and created Team Plasma to fulfil his dream. He considered the Sages as wise, good men, though flawed and on occasion too cruel. Aqua wasn't sure whether N's parents could really have been pokémon or that he had just been abandoned to pokémon as a child, but either way he wasn't raised by humans but by pokémon. His behaviour was very inhuman, and it was easy to think of him as a fellow pokémon.

Diego, on the other hand, had not really been able to explain his behaviour satisfactorily. Apparently he hadn't even told N about what he'd done to Boreas, and the human was as angry as Aqua at him for it. Aqua had scolded and Scalded him furiously for the way he'd tormented Boreas. But of course forgiveness came a lot easier to N, as Diego had been his lifelong friend and he didn't love Boreas like Aqua did.

"Hey there, gorgeous," said Diego as he sat down next to her.

"What do you want, Diego?" Aqua snapped.

"I just want to cheer you up a bit. You know I rather see a gorgeous smile then a gorgeous frown on that pretty face."

"Save it, Diego. I'm not going to cheer up, not after what happened."

"I think you will if you place it into perspective: you lost your boyfriend, but he was a git anyway. He joined the evil human oppressors and called you a traitor for joining the right side. He even tried to kill you, I saw it with my own eyes. You've got your friends to help you through this. Maybe I can even be more than just a friend to you..."

"What?"

"Well, when we told Boreas we were mates, it was just a lie to hurt him like he'd hurt you, of course. But why don't we make that lie a truth? It's over between you now, after all, so we can both give in to the natural magnetism that's been between us ever since we first met."

Aqua felt pretty uncomfortable at that proposal. On the one hand she wanted to say yes. Diego was attractive, powerful, fighting for what was right, and strong. He had always treated her well and supported her, even when Boreas didn't. But another part of her realised she felt nothing for him, while her heart had burnt and in a way still burnt, for Boreas. Because even though she hated Boreas now, part of her was still immensely attracted by him. "No. Sorry, Diego, but I think we're better off as just friends."

"Okay. I understand, it is rather short notice, isn't it? I never asked you before, because I knew you had a boyfriend, but now that you're free I figure we can hook up. But of course I'll give you a while to think about it."

"Diego, that's not what- You had better take that paw off my hip right now or I'll take it off your arm," Aqua said only half-jokingly.

Diego quickly retracted his arm. "Okay, sorry about that. It's hard to resist touching such beauty."

"Well, you'd better learn resisting it, because I'm not at all interested in you in that way."

"Then what're you going to do? Go back to Boreas?"

"Never!" she exclaimed, though part of her wanted to. But she recognised that even if she forgave him for some unfathomable reason there was no way he'd want her back after the things she'd said and done. Maybe she had really betrayed him... Joining N after all that Team Plasma had put him through was very inconsiderate, she had to admit, even if it was the right choice. She trembled as the way he'd called her a traitor echoed through her mind. His voice had really ringed with the deepest sound of betrayal. She realised that maybe he really did love her, and had just felt incredibly betrayed by her choice.

"Hey, are you alright, handsome?" Diego asked.

"Yes," Aqua lied. "Yes, just leave me alone for a bit. I... Need to think about some things."

"Of course," Diego grinned. "You shouldn't rush into a relationship."

As Diego left her, Aqua remembered how Boreas had supported her when she'd needed him most. Falling asleep in his arms had been wonderful and she really began to question her sanity in questioning whether he really loved her as she remembered his passionate kisses. Of course he did. He loved her, and now she had destroyed any chance they might have at being together happily.

But, another part of her angrily brought up, even if he really did love her, he had still been horrible to her. She was a traitor, was she? A bitch and a filthy slut, and Capella's blood was on her paws? Even if they had loved each other, that was unforgivable. But then she realised just how it must've felt for him to have Capella, who he liked very much, die at Team Plasma's hands and then find out his girlfriend joined N. And then the things she'd said to him... She had tried to remain calm and explain the situation to him, but his words had infuriated her, and she had said some really mean things herself. She felt horrible and ashamed as she remembered it.

–

Boreas suddenly felt like his inner organs were being squeezed out through his mouth and arse as rope-like things caught him around his belly and heaved him up. He reached the top of the chasm and stood eye to eye with a furious Octa.

"Have you gone stark raving mad?" Octa shouted.

Boreas was dumbfounded. In the year he'd known Octa, the Servine had never yelled at him. "O-Octa, I-"

"Yes, you! That's who it's all about with you, isn't it? You!"

"That's not-"

"Just because things aren't going your way for a bit, you decide to top yourself? I have never heard of such a despicably selfish act, and am tempted to push you into that gorge myself!"

"I-"

"The thought of how your suicide would affect us never even crossed your egotistic mind, did it? Capella gave her life to save yours, and you would just waste her sacrifice by throwing your life away? You would give us another friend to mourn? How is Black supposed to deal with that? How am _I_ supposed to deal with that? Hmm?"

Octa was right, Boreas hadn't tried to see it from that side yet. "I-I hadn't thought of that..."

"No, you hadn't, had you? You stupid, inconsiderate, selfish nincompoop!"

"Octa, I'm sorry. I didn't realise you still cared..."

Octa took a deep breath. He stopped shouting and returned to his normal angry state: icy, snide, and calm. "You think just because you gravely insulted me and my family your death wouldn't affect me?Honestly, 'tis a shame such a smart mind is wasted on one as stupid as you."

"Sorry. Sorry for everything, I didn't mean what I said to you. And I shouldn't have tried to kill myself, you're right. But Capella's death and Aqua's treason just affected me so much... You don't know what it's like, the emotions blind me and fill my entire being. I-I wish I was like you, without these emotions bothering me!"

Octa's eyebrows raised in surprise. "You think I have no emotions? I am no emotionless automaton, of course I have emotions. I just have a far better control over them than you, my dear fellow. I am as sorrowful as you are about Capella's death, but I don't let that sorrow control me and make me a depressed wreck. I am furious about your attempt to kill yourself and the insults you hurled at me, but I do not let that anger control me and make me a raging maniac."

"Can you teach that to me?"

"Well, 'tis not like an easy trick one can simply be taught. 'Tis a form of self-discipline that requires a lot of effort and time to learn. I can only advice you to breathe deeply and try to calm yourself whenever your emotions threaten to overwhelm you. Always listen to your mind, not to your heart."

"I guess... Octa, what should I do about Aqua? I mean, she betrayed me and said all kinds of horrible things."

"Well, I do have some advice on that subject."

"Yes?"

"Get over yourself."

"What?" Boreas snarled angrily.

"Do you think your world view is the only valid one? Just because Aqua doesn't agree with you doesn't mean she betrayed you. I doubt betrayal was in her mind for even a moment."

"But she joined Team Plasma, the people who killed Capella!"

"Yes, she did. But let me ask you something important: how much do you love her?"

"I don't," Boreas lied.

"Poppycock. How much do you love her?"

"Fifty kilohearts!" Boreas sarcastically replied. "How am I supposed to quantify a feeling?"

"Close your eyes. Try to feel the full extent of your adoration for her. Now imagine it as a flame. Tell me how warmly it burns."

Boreas did so and resolutely stated: "It'd burn Moltres-wings to dust."

Octa whistled in amazement.

"And it's a bit too big and warm to be called a flame. More like the nuclear fires of a star, really."

"Well, if that is how you wish to characterise it, let me continue along that metaphor: if nurtured and allowed to prosper, a star can illuminate an entire solar system, and sustain biospheres of life on nearby planets. However, if not nurtured, a star dies. It does so in a supernova of unmatched catastrophic proportions, annihilating absolutely everything in its vicinity, vaporising entire solar systems. If your love is truly like the nuclear fires of a star, you seem to have two choices of how to handle it. Now I am getting tired, therefore I shall go to bed. Be warned that I shall never forgive you if you decide to make jumping into gorges a habit."

–

AUTHOR'S NOTES: I'm happy to say we've reached the end of the descend into darkness we've experienced over the past few chapters. Things are getting a bit better, as the second and third parts of this chapter show. The past few chapters have been quite taxing on me to write, but the reviews showing how much people cared for my characters were truly heartwarming.

FEEDBACK: Glaceon34: Q: I have a mix feeling reading this chapter, the first thing come to my mind is that what a great battle, fearsome horrible, but still great,very action pack,detail,reality,..i even have to hold my breath at some part. HOwever at the same time, there was so much blood and dead, the way Capella died was so horrible,at some chapter like this I think it can be rated M my friend,in the end it was a awsome battle, a pity Capella has to die she is one of my most favorite characters aside from Boreas aqua and Octa

A: Thank you. It was a very hard chapter to write. I suppose you're right that Capella's death was a bit on the graphic side for a T story, next time something like that happen I'll go into a bit less detail.

UNKNOWN: Q: K, I'm finally back! Ah, it brings big smile to my face that I've stood by and watched this story grow from only 16 chapters ( was it? I can't be sure) and a meager 28 reviews ( yes, my memory is weird like that) !

A: Yeah, it used to get very few reviews, but the amount of reviews per chapter has steadily been growing. Strangely the opposite happened on deviantArt: I got a lot of reviews in the beginning, but it's generally the same people commenting on new chapters since, with new readers barely ever appearing. I guess it's a consequence of the different ways fanfics are organised between these two sites.

Q: Capella? Gone? All I can say is that I wasn't expecting that AT ALL. Wonder if another teammate will go down.( Don't make me ALMOST cry again, dude! )

A: Well, I can't promise anything.

Q: Octa does get offended rather easily. If he knows Boreas is furious ( hah, bad rhyme ) why does he butt in in the first place?

A: Well, Octa butts in especially because Boreas is furious, and he doesn't want him to hurt his relationship with Aqua even more than he already has (or even kill her). He basically wants to protect Boreas from his own anger. Yes, he's easily offended; it tends to happen when you have such a high opinion of yourself.

And yes, very bad rhyme, as Boreas is pronounced Boh-RAY-yas, not BOH-ree-yas.

flashers: Q: As much as I was bored to read this infantile dispute between Aqua and Boreas, but the fight was first class bravo!

A: Oh dear, you were bored with their argument? That's not good... I hope others don't share that opinion. But I'm glad you liked the fight.

Q: I know Aqua Boreas still loves but she made a big mistake

A: She certainly did. And so did Boreas, though not as big, depending on your point of view.

Q: I think i might just kill myself if i was in Boreas position right now, the one who has lost everything, personally i really hate the all-happy-ending story but these chapter really hurt...

A: Well, as you've read by now Boreas shared that sentiment, though Octa fortunately happened to hear him get up at night and followed him. Well, if these chapters hurt that much you'll be glad to hear Boreas' deep fall into despair is over. I can't promise things will start going great, but for now they won't get worse.

RuningwitScizors: Q: . . .I started on chapter 1 and ended on chapter 40 in one day. Yeah, I was left to read the saddest chapter I have ever read... On a cliffanger! I swear, this Glaceon shou-Nay! NEEDS to have a happy ending! ~ I saw ths coming though... this fight.. don't make me beg for the both of these evolved eevee's to be happy! Oh-and in the process, can you make that Zoarark die in a hole?

A: Wow, all forty chapters in one day? That's quite cool, and I feel flattered. The only thing about happy endings I can promise is that there will be a happy ending- for some of the characters.

The Bulbafinatic: Q: What makes this chapter even more interesting is that I've watched my brother play Pokemon Black and I know N is AWESOME. So I'm reading this, and I realize that Boreas misunderstands two people / pokemon; Aqua AND N.

Didn't Ghetsis lie to N about freeing pokemon? Wasn't he just trying to do that so that he'd be the last person with pokemon?

A: N is indeed a far better person than Boreas thinks. As for Ghetsis... Well, as chapter 37 shows I've changed his plan and motivation and those of the other Sages around a bit. While this story is based on the games, it is not an exact retelling, and the deviations from the game will only increase as we near the end, is all I can say.

Q: This doesn't really have anything to do with the story, but how do you make an "e" have that dash on top of it? I'm writing the word "pokemon" and I really want to make the right kind of "e", but I don't know how.

A: You put an acutus on an e by pressing the ' key and then the E. (You can also do a gravus or a circumflex or a trillian with `, ~, and ") It depends on your keyboard settings, though, if it doesn't work set your keyboard to the United States-International setting.

Q: I once saw that picture you drew of Boreas, but he was dressed like a pirate. Is that a parody or something, or do you get that because part of him is kind of like Jack Sparrow?

A: I drew that to celebrate International Talk Like a Pirate Day.


	42. The Highflying Girl

Chapter Forty-Two: The Highflying Girl

When they finally emerged from Chargestone Cave it felt like a huge blessing to them all. Capella couldn't have been more mistaken when she had said they would have a great time in the cave. Now that horrible place was her tomb, and the site of the violent breakup between Boreas and Aqua, two events that kept haunting Boreas. Seeing the Sun for the first time in weeks was simply delightful. While it didn't really solve any part of the mountain of troubles and horrid memories plaguing Boreas the light at least made them seem slightly less overwhelming than the eternal darkness of Chargestone Cave did.

It had been winter when they'd entered the cave, but by now spring had clearly started. Flowers grew, birds sang, and trees had regained their leaves. Seeing life go on everywhere made the pain of Capella's loss easier to bear. But not the pain of Aqua's treason. When Boreas saw two Pidgeys courting, he felt so incredibly jealous he was just about ready to kill them both. Spring brought many such reminders to Boreas, and it made his mood the worst in the entire team.

They arrived in Mistralton on a beautiful day in early April. They walked the last part of the journey to the pokécenter, through Mistralton, exhausted and limping with various wounds and broken limbs. Their walking the streets so battered up and exhausted caught the attention of a pink-haired human woman in revealing blue clothes and a middle-aged man with an odd greying-brown haircut and beard. They rushed over to help Black and his pokémon. The woman threw Black's arm around her shoulder to help him walk, as the deep cut on his leg had got infected and gave him a limp now.

"Are you alright?" the woman asked with concern.

Black was looking at her with a stupid, mesmerised expression on his face. "I... I am now," he spoke.

"Don't worry, boy," the man said in a pleasant baritone voice, "Skyla and I'll help you to the pokécenter. What's your name?"

Black didn't respond but kept staring straight into Skyla's eyes. "Hey there. My name is Black."

"Right, Black, my name is Cedric Juniper, and this is Skyla, Mistralton's Gym Leader. And you are obviously exhausted and wounded, so we're bringing you to the pokécenter."

In other circumstances Boreas might have giggled along with his friends and Lucius at Black's obvious smittenness, but instead he felt ice cold jealousy freezing him, and he could barely resist freezing Black as well. "So, what's you name?" Black asked.

"Professor!" said Skyla, "I think he might have a concussion or something!"

"Heh, 'or something' indeed," Juniper chuckled, "I don't think the pokécenter can cure that, but at least it can heal their wounds. I wonder if he's the same Black my daughter has been talking about..." He inspected Octa for a moment. "Yes, he must be. That Servine clearly comes from Crimson Breeders: look at its pentafurcated tail- and backleaves and its long arms. I'm pretty sure only they have bred Servines looking like that."

"You're right, Professor. Did Minerva give a Snivy from Crimson breeders to this Black? That's a generous gift!" Octa basked with pride at this.

"Yup. Always gave her friends big gifts for their birthdays when she was a kid too. Well, boy, if your brain is still working, you're probably wondering if I'm related to Minerva Juniper. And I am: she's my daughter."

Black seemed to notice Cedric Juniper for the first time. "Oh, hello sir. I know your daughter, actually; she gave me Octa, my Servine."

Juniper chuckled as they reached the pokécenter. "Did she? Well, what a small world it is. As Skyla here just showed me with her plane. Skyla, I'll let you know if something comes up again."

"Professor, my plane is a cargo plane! You can't keep treating it as your private jet!"

"Aww, Skyla. If you keep frowning, your face might freeze like that, and that'd be a shame. We all have to help each other out, you know, both people and pokémon. Well, see you later. You too, Black."

"Sheesh," said Skyla as Juniper walked away, "it's hard to believe a happy-go-lucky guy like that could be a renowned pokémon professor. Well, Black, I take it you'll want to challenge my Gym, but first I want you and your pokémon to get a good check-up and rest at the pokécenter. I won't accept your challenge beforehand."

–

Boreas awoke from the first good night's sleep he'd had in weeks. When he had told Nurse Armageddon's Audino he couldn't sleep she had given him some pills that had sent him into a dreamless sleep. That, coupled with the pokécenter's cares and the soft room meant Boreas awoke in a better mood than he'd been in since Capella died. It was still darker and fouler than the average Garbodor's stool sample, but at least it was an improvement.

Boreas looked at himself in the mirror that hung in the room. A grim, sad Glaceon looked back. The cheerful, intelligent gleam in his eyes was gone, replaced by a frown and a sad stare. A large scar marred his left cheek and the tip of his tail was missing. The fur on his lower jaw was darker than it used to be. It was quite a change from the last time he'd seen his reflection. He tried to smile, but it looked awfully fake and just as gloomy as before.

When Black awoke he woke his pokémon and told them to gather round. It was clear he was going to say something, but he didn't seem to be able to start.

"Um," he explained. He was silent for a moment. "Guys, I have to talk to you about something. I... uh... basically, I'm not sure if I want to continue our journey. Capella's death made me think... It made me think about many things, but most of all about being Champion. It's what I've always wanted, but now I'm not sure any more... Capella's death made me think about the things that really matter, and I wonder if power is worth the chance of losing another on of you... So I'm considering returning to Nuvema. You can all come with me, of course. But I'm not sure, that's why we're going to continue until I decide and challenge Skyla today."

Boreas didn't know what he thought of it. Getting away from it all by returning to Nuvema sounded great. But on the other hand, that would also mean stopping their fight against Team Plasma. Which was probably a good thing, now that he thought of it. No more death, no more fighting, no more danger. There was nothing they could really do against Plasma anyway, and the chance of losing more friends or running into Aqua again...

"Black, old chap," Octa spoke, "as much as it pains me not to pursue our chance at glory, I agree we should most definitely consider returning to Nuvema, at the very least for a long break and perchance to retire from our endeavour entirely. Capella's untimely demise has affected us all severely..."

Boreas nodded.

"Yeah, I-I guess you're right," said Toxica. "It's just not the same without Capella. I don't know if I can continue like this..."

Lucius scowled and looked at each of their faces in turn. "That's funny," he snarled, "I didn't notice all your balls were cut off during the battle!"

"What?" Boreas exclaimed.

"You're a bunch of weakling cowards! Did your spirits die with Capella? Is your ambition suddenly gone? You're just gonna go home to whine about her being dead? Well, if that's the way y'all think, I'm done with this team! You guys may be ready to give up, but unlike you Capella's death has only made my resolve stronger! I will find Team Plasma, and make them into a funeral pyre for Capella. Sages, grunts, pokémon, N, that lovely girlfriend of yours, pup. And I will get to the fucking pokémon league, and enter that fucking Hall of Fame! And if you guys are too wimpy to do that, I'm leaving the team the moment you give up, and I'll let myself be caught by Cheren, or another real trainer!"

It was silent for a moment, then Boreas, Octa, and Toxica started arguing with him. They fell silent, however, when Selene said: "I agree with Lucius."

It was so rare that Selene said something that both made sense and was directly connected to the situation at hand that they all stopped arguing. "You... You have an opinion?" Boreas blurted out.

Selene looked as surprised as Boreas did. "Yes... I believe I do. I agree with Lucius. We can't stop now, I want to defeat the Champion. And stop Team Plasma. I think this must be important."

Lucius laughed. "There, that crazy old chicken is being saner than all of you together. Good job, you crazy bird!"

"But Selene," Toxica argued, "you can't really agree with 'im. I mean, what's becoming Champion going to get us?"

"Power," Lucius spoke, "and glory and honour and recognition and all that. The entire region looking at us reverently, because we proved we are the most powerful pokémon in all of Unova! If we continue we can have enough power to avenge Capella and much, much more!"

"We shouldn't give up," Selene nodded. "I think I'm certain of this. We can't give up just because we've hit a little trouble. If I'd done that when- uh, never mind. So anyway, I agree with Lucius."

They began arguing again, but Black interrupted them. "Okay, I see not all of you agree with me. But I haven't decided yet anyway. Let's go challenge Skyla first."

–

Though Mistralton was only a small city, the Gym was quite hard to find. It turned out to be inside an aircraft hangar on the city's busy airport. From the inside the hangar was quite unique: the huge hall contained two platforms raised high up in the air on poles. A huge blue cannon stood on the middle one and on the ground. The cannons were large enough for a human to fit in, and pointed at the platforms. Skyla stood on the highest platform, waiting. Black tried shouting at her, but she was too far away to hear.

"Selene," Black said, "go to Skyla and try to find out if I'm really supposed to fire myself out of these cannons."

Selene flew up and came back a while later. She simply nodded.

"Well," Black said dubiously, "I guess it must be safe... But I'll return you all to your pokéballs for a moment."

–

Boreas was released from the bizarre world inside his pokéball on the highest platform. Black looked quite bruised up.

"Hee-hee," giggled Skyla, "did you enjoy flying with the help of the cannons? They're my pride and joy!"

"Well, they _are_ quite a nice pair of cannons," said Black.

"Well, the cannons may be fun, but battling is even more fun! We'll use three pokémon each, no switching out. Amelia, go!"

She threw a pokéball with a graceful pirouette, and a Swoobat appeared, soaring through the air. "Selene," Black commanded, "you're up first!"

Selene looked up quizzically. "Am I? I don't see myself there..."

"He means you have to kick that Swoobat's ass, crazy bird!" Lucius barked.

"Oh, I see!" Selene took off and pursued the Swoobat. Boreas thought Selene was a very wise choice for the battle here. Just like with Elesa, their immobility was a big disadvantage, but Selene's wings solved that problem. Her type advantage was good too.

Neither Selene nor Amelia the Swoobat was a very graceful flyer. They flew around the large hangar flapping their wings loudly in powerful, rather than dazzling aerial combat. Still, they raced through the hangar, trying to get the better of each other. They pecked and bit each other, bashed into their enemy, hit the other with their wings.

Suddenly Selene plummeted down, falling to the ground like a brick. She was too far away for Black to return her to her pokéball, so it seemed she was going to crash into the ground. The Swoobat dived down even faster, using her wings to catch up to the plummeting Murkrow and rescue her. As soon as she caught up, Selene suddenly regained complete control of her flight, powerfully hit the Swoobat with her wings, circled around her and dug her claws into Amelia's back and wings. Lucius and Boreas cheered for her, but Toxica seemed unimpressed and Octa frowned disapprovingly.

The battle continued with low swoops and high flies, but after the powerful dark-type attack Selene had unleashed on Swoobat she had such great advantage that the battle was practically over. It wasn't long before Skyla recalled her pokémon.

"When I think about a match with a fabulous trainer like you, it's like walking on air!" Skyla said as she threw another pokéball. "It's your turn, Orville!"

With a flash of light a gleaming metallic Skarmory appeared. "Uh oh, that's a steel-type..." Boreas mumbled, remembering Ryoku's Ferrothorn that had been nearly impervious to damage thanks to its type.

"No problem, pup," Lucius said, "my flames'll easily burn through that armour and roast the bird inside."

"Well, that's not much good to Selene, is it? And besides, you'll have to catch it first. That won't be easy without wings."

"Yeah, well, why don't you go give up and cry back to Nuvema, huh?"

Boreas' emotions were already stretched to their limit and the urge to attack Lucius was very hard for him to resist. "What is your problem, Lucius?"

"What's _my_ problem, pup?" Lucius scoffed, "I could ask you the same thing. We have an opportunity at power, fame, fortune, and glory and you just want to throw it away to go crying like a newborn?"

"If you like power that much," Boreas hissed, "why don't you join the Sages? Their plan sounds just like your thing!"

Lucius was furious at the suggestion. "Because they killed Capella, you dipshit! So maybe their cause is surprisingly good, what does that matter? I'm still gonna kill them all and everyone who helped 'em along."

"Lucius," Black commanded as he recalled Selene, who had just got badly beaten up by the Skarmory, "it's your turn!"

Lucius turned his furious glare away from Boreas and instead paid attention to the big metal bird that was rapidly swooping to the platform. A gigantic wave of flame erupted from his mouth. The Skarmory tried to avoid it, but it was too big even for a pokémon of its speed and it was caught right in the wave of flame, yet it emerged still flying though its conductive metal armour had to be baking it on the inside. Lucius breathed in to produce another inferno, but Skarmory's speed paid off and it swooped over Lucius, leaving long, deep cuts in his back with its metal claws.

But Lucius jumped at his opponent, his teeth ablaze with intense flames, and bit into its tail, leaving a red-hot mark before Skarmory managed to shake him off, nearly dropping him over the edge. They began a powerful, rough melee combat. Under normal circumstances Skarmory's metal armour would give it an immense advantage, but Lucius' teeth and claws were ablaze with flames, heating the metal bird's armour up with every hit and roasting the creature's flesh inside.

For a while the battle seemed to be going to Skarmory's side, as the cuts it left on Lucius forced him ever nearer the edge. But then the battle's tide turned as Skarmory's armour heated up further and further. In the end Skyla was forced to retract it as it began screaming in pain, being baked from the inside.

"This is my last pokémon," she said, sending out a Swanna, "but I never give up hope!"

The moment Swanna appeared from the pokéball it unleashed a beam of bubbles on Lucius. The speed at which the bubbles moved meant the barraged Lucius powerfully with lots of water and soaked him as they blasted him back. The fire-type roared and yelled in pain, but there was little he could do any more.

"Boreas, it's all yours!" said Black.

Boreas pounced at Swanna to pin it down before it could fly away, but it took off immediately, recognising a faster and more agile opponent. Boreas almost jumped over the platform's edge as he missed, but managed to catch himself. His opponent, now soaring through the air, blasted him with the Bubblebeam. Though they were only bubbles, the force behind them was immense and it felt more like a beam of golf balls blasted at him with great force than bubbles. His skin was bruised by the great force, which felt as if it left marks on his bones. Boreas disrupted the Bubblebeam with a pulse of cold, then jumped out of the way, hit the head of the beam with an Ice Beam, freezing the nearest bubbles and turning them into a beam of hail the size of golfballs instead. He tried to let the cold spread up the beam to its user, but that was impossible due to the air between the bubbles and the speed at which they flowed. So he quickly stopped doing that, as the last thing he needed was for those bubbles to be solid and thus do even more damage.

He tried to hit his opponent with Ice Beams, but it was too far away to be hit by them. On the other hand, the small platform allowed him little space to dodge the Bubblebeam.

He tried to control the copious amounts of air in the large hangar, to whip it up into an icy storm, but that was not easy. The air was standing still here, lazy and stagnant; quite unlike the stormy, busy air he had used the last time he'd tried to control it. It didn't want to move, but he prodded it on with Icy Wind, slowly getting it to get off its lazy arse and start moving about, first as a calm breeze, then as a stiff cool wind that gyred through the Gym. Boreas found it increasingly easy to control and use it. He directed the winds to his opponent to interfere with its flight. Of course, he couldn't precisely control the unpredictable, chaotic air, but giving it a nudge and a suggestion for the general direction of what he wanted it to do worked just as well.

The bubbles stood no chance of survival in the roaring winds that now howled through the hangar and Swanna was having heavy troubles staying afloat. Skyla shouted commands at it, but it couldn't even hear her over the rapid winds. This was amazingly easy, Boreas thought. The air itself seemed to want to move and make a storm, all it needed was some encouragement to actually do it.

His opponent swooped to the platform, battling the fierce winds. But it didn't even have the mobility to dodge the five Ice Beams Boreas shot at it as it struggled against the winds and was hit by all. Thoroughly weakened, it managed to land on the platform, only to be taken down by two more Ice Beams.

"Wow," Skyla cheerfully spoke as she almost lost her balance to the storm, "you're an amazing pokémon trainer! Being your opponent has been a new source of strength to me, as you won an amazing victory. Here, you earned the Jet Badge!" she handed Black a badge shaped like a feather.

"Thanks," said Black.

"Y'know, I heard some things about you from the other Gym Leaders!" Skyla continued. "Six badges already, eh? Brycen and Drayden had better watch out..."

"Actually..." said Black. "I'm not sure if I will continue my quest."

"But why?" Skyla asked with concern. "You're a great trainer, you have real potential. I'm sure you could make it to the pokémon league, and then who knows?"

"I just... Don't know..." said Black.

"Well, don't you want to continue for your fans, then?"

"Fans?"

"Yeah, that guy with the long green hair standing in the hangar's doorway, he watched our entire battle. He must be a fan of you."

–

AUTHOR'S NOTES: Well, that took a while; almost three weeks, longer even than the break when I was on vacation between chapters 19 and 20. My mind just got out of the story, basically, as I did other things. Chapters will probably come quicker than this from now on, though I can't promise anything. The break in writing is also what I'm going to blame for the slightly boring battle against Skyla.

I would probably have made a Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy reference in the chapter title if I didn't have a pattern of naming gym battle chapters after the Gym Leaders' tagline.

FEEDBACK: JHawkeye9000: Q: Wow, this is the best fanfic ever in my opinion. It's the one i'm always so happy to see updated, and often too. I can't say I wasn't expecting him to try and end it, but I expected Aqua to see and somehow save him, not Octa. Very good story, can't wait for more. Also Diego is a douche.

A: Thanks. Boreas trying to kill himself was a rather obvious development, given the deep pit of despair I threw him into and how... unstable he tends to be. I hadn't thought of having Aqua save him, but now that I think about it it's probably a good thing I didn't do that. It would've been too easy an end to the conflict between them.

Diego is indeed a complete douche. Interestingly he started out in my mind as quite a sympathetic, pleasant character. I had always imagined him as a sort of rival to Boreas, but it would've been a much friendlier rivalry originally. Then I rather changed his character when I got to chapter 25, realising a complete bastard would be much more fun as an enemy, and make for much more exciting battles with him than the rather boring two I'd done before. The one artifact of the old personality I had in mind for him is his name: I named him after Diego de la Vega (Zorro), and would probably not have done that if I had thought of him as the complete bastard we have now from the start.

RuningWitSizorz: Q: You know what? I finally got over chapter 40! And caspela's death(sorry for the obvious spelling error of the name.), and the sad love fight may of been a big twist, but the biggest suprise twist ever? The glaceon's death from a bottomless pit in Charleston Cave!

A: Heh, what a way to end the story that would've been. Or to change the main character to Octa. That would really have validated the "surprising" in the story's title.

The Bulbafinatic: Q: Sorry, Octa. I'm afraid it's impossible for dudes to have patience. You're one exception. As for Boreas, well, he's doomed.

A: Hardly, I could name quite a lot more exceptions. But of course, for Boreas that kind of thing is very hard indeed.

Q: How DARE you, Diego! Aqua, do me a favor and Scald his face, please.

A: Heh, let me tell you we've hardly seen the depths Diego can go through yet.

Q: And the irony! Somebody wanted Diego to die in a hole - and Boreas tried to die in a hole, instead! Did you get any of the ideas in this story from feedback?

A: Heh, I hadn't even noticed that. I didn't get that idea from the feedback, but on occasion I do get ideas from feedback. No specific instance springs to mind right now, but comments certainly have given me ideas before.

REV6pilot: Q: As I read, I laugh, I sigh, I roll my eyes... I cry. My friend, you aren't writing a fanfic. You're making a masterpiece.

I can't get over how fleshy your characters are, and how much I can relate to it all. It's just so VIVID! The development, mingling neutral narration with the focused person's views, is enormously absorbing as well... I proudly say you're a master of storytelling, a fact now even more consolidated by the glorious use of split perspectives. As if you couldn't tell before, major kudos from me.

A: Wow. Thanks, cheers, grazie, and everything else of that sort. I really appreciate hearing that, thank you.

Q: The only, small thing I get a bit disgruntled with is a slight tendence of yours to "eat" words. Thankfully, that rarely happens, and the rest of your writing can make most Grammar Nazis proud!

A: I think the disappearing words are caused, ironically, by my proofreading and fixing mistakes or improving sentences. I usually find the missing words appear in sentences I improved during the proofreading. I should really teach myself to read the sentence over carefully after editing it.

Q: Okay, enough being impartial. Hey, don't look at me like that, I am human too! Hehehe. Anyway, I sincerely hope Boreas and Aqua can be together despite her unwittingly being on the wrong end of the field. Those two, to me, are by far the best characters of this tale. I gotta say, Octa is interesting, and this insight he just gave my favorite Glaceon does develop his character quite a bit, but he's, well... kind of just there. I don't like the others much so far - Black is only present because the pokemons need a trainer, Toxica is a bland shallow love interest, no more than a tool to develop Octa much in the same way Thimas accomplished his role on Boreas' decelopment. And Lucius and Selene... little more than comic relief. Maybe it's because they didn't really get their day in the limelight, but I can't help but feel like this.

A: Thanks for the stuff about the characters. I know I haven't really developed the less-important characters very well so far. It's because Boreas, Aqua, and Octa have demanded a lot of characterisation, and what was left I usually gave to Capella, seeing as I knew I only had limited time to develop her. But I will try to focus more on Black, Lucius, Selene, and Toxica now. It's a shame to hear you consider Toxica a bland shallow love interest and Lucius little more than comic relief, though, I had hoped the little character depth I had given them so far would have made them better then that, but I guess you're right. And as for Black... The lack of communication options with his pokémon makes it very hard to give him character depth. I have been planning things with him, though, and if all works out he should start getting some character depth too.

Sir Raymond Quaza: Q: ...Well, Octa sure forgave him quicker than I thought. I just hope that Boreas forgives Aqua somewhat quickly, too. Good writing.

A: Well, Octa didn't forgive Boreas yet. He's still angry and insulted. And he feels extra angry over Boreas trying to kill himself. But he's good at listening to his mind, rather than his emotions and he known that Boreas needs him now more than ever. But he's clearly still angry: notice how he remains very curt after he stops shouting and doesn't so much support Boreas as tell him to get his shit together. If he had really forgiven Boreas, he would likely be a lot more supportive and friendly there.

Q: Does Lucius at least somewhat like-like Selene?

A: I can only give you the answer Boreas would give you if you asked him. Which is "She's the only person he can't insult or anger, because she just doesn't understand insults and rudeness. She's also the only person crazy enough to like him. I'd say that makes her the closest thing to a friend Lucius has."

Q: Will Selene's personality change if/when she evolves into a Honchkrow?

A: You'll see.

Glaceon34: Q: yup, that's what i guess Boreas would do,hope think will turn out to be okay. I haven't played Black and white yet, but from your story and all i don't think i like N at all, I think he is just some kind of marry-sue, talk about all the perfect-world, which make me sick. Honestly, i wish i had my hand on the game so that i can kick this guy butt, N really get on my nerve.

A: Well, he is pretty annoying in the game indeed. It's mainly the ending that makes him a sympathetic character. Whether the same will be true for my story I won't tell you, of course. All I can say about the ending is that my deviations from the game's story line have increased in size as I progressed in the story so far, and they will continue increasing as we get closer to the end.

Q: after this chapter, Dielgo has officially showed his asshole face, the shame Aqua can't see that!

A: Oh, we haven't seen what Diego is capable of at all yet...

Sonosublime: Q: I just started reading this story today and Im already hooked. Amazing so far, I love how unique each character is, and how you give a dangerous and deadly spin to the battles of the Pokemon universe.

A: Great to hear you got to reading my story, and even better to hear you liked it! Making the pokémon world more realistic and dangerous than the games portray it as is indeed one of the things I like a lot about writing this story.

Q: My only complaint is perhaps you should give a brief description of each Pokemon is they're introduced. Short of going to google images, there is no way of knowing what the Pokemon (and the humans, for that matter) look like.

A: You're right, that would've improved legibility for people who aren't too familiar with pokémon, but that group is probably a minority, and it's easy for a pokémon fan to just assume the name alone will be enough to identify the pokémon. But I will try to keep this in mind when I write.


	43. Better to Have Loved and Lost?

Part Seven: If Winter Comes, Can Spring be Far Behind?

Chapter Forty-Three: Better to Have Loved and Lost?

"What do you want, N?" Black angrily asked when he got to the door. "And where are your pokémon?"

"My pokémon are not here," N stated, "because I don't want to have another fight. Battles are cruel and unjust, and our previous battle was even more so. I have to talk to you, I don't want to fight you, so I thought it was wise to leave my pokémon at the city's edge."

"And how d'you know," Lucius growled, "we won't just kill you now that you're undefended and be done with Team Plasma?"

"Because you wouldn't do that to an unprotected man. And because Team Plasma wouldn't be done without me, they would just change their plans, much for the worse of everyone. Speaking of their plans: that's what I want to talk to you about."

"Really?" Black asked. "You're going to tell me Team Plasma's plans? Why?"

"Because they involve you. Walk with me and let me tell you about how Unova came to be. The warring people of Unova were united under two heroes who were friends with a legendary dragon. The heroes ruled wisely for a number of years, but they were humans. Eventually their warlike nature became apparent and they fought a destructive war with each other. One foolish hero closed his mind to what could be and was content with what was, pursuing truth. The other hero realised things could be better and strove for a perfect, ideal world. Their war devastated Unova after the period of peace they had ironically begun. Of course, they died in the end and Unova had some limited peace again. Without the heroes' force of will keeping them in this world, the dragons went to sleep in two stones, a light one and a dark one. Each awaited to be reawoken by new a new hero once again pursuing truth or ideals. I am that hero and I will resurrect Zekrom to make my ideal world!"

Black began laughing. Octa said: "Surely you must realise this is only a myth. Not the actual truth."

"You've been with humans too long, Octa. You've adopted their narrow-minded attitude."

"Narrow-minded?" Octa arched an eyebrow. "Is reason narrow-minded? Scepsis towards unproven hypotheses is not narrow-mindedness, but the entire foundation of knowledge. If one does not apply scepsis systematically, one's mind shall unavoidably be filled with nonsense, rubbish and superstition, for one can believe any non-contradictory claim made, regardless of whether or not there is any evidence supporting it. Scepsis, my good sir, is the foundation of reason and civilisation, therefore it does not surprise me to see Team Plasma's king so thoroughly lacking in it."

Boreas grinned at Octa's little speech. It was great to hear Octa put N down like that. It made Boreas realise how much he missed Octa's clever wit and especially his friendship. He decided he should soon apologise for how he had insulted him during their last meeting with N.

N grimaced. "But I _do_ have evidence that the myths are true. It's all a big equation, don't you see? But what's more important is Black's role in this." He turned back to Black. "You don't want me to succeed, do you?"

"Of course I don't!" Black gestured angrily. "You want to separate humans and pokémon, breaking millions of friendships! Not only that, but your Team Plasma is doing utterly evil things to get to their goal. I would oppose you even if I agreed humans and pokémon should be separated.; your Team Plasma killed Capella and tried killing me and all my pokémon several times!"

"If you want to stop-"

But Black wasn't done yet. "What right do you have to shove your opinion down everyone's throat anyway? have no problem with you trying to convince people to release their pokémon, but forcing them to? What gives you that right?"

N closed his eyes for a moment before responding. "Many different values mix, and the world becomes grey. That is unforgivable! I will separate pokémon and people, and black and white will be clearly distinct!"

"If you were really a hero, you would celebrate the world's differences, not seek to destroy them all!"

"Maybe. Maybe not. We'll see. When I resurrect Zekrom, I will conquer the Pokémon League and defeat the Champion in the final pokémon battle. Then, between my authority as Champion and Zekrom's power, everyone will release their pokémon. The normal trainers first, then the Gym Leaders and other powerful trainers too. Trainers like you, who really love their pokémon, will release them too, and that does break my heart a little. But it is for the greater good. There is one way, however, in which you can prevent this. Zekrom and I can only be stopped by an equal and opposite force: Reshiram and you."

"Me?" Black asked in surprise.

"Yes, you. I have known it since Chargestone Cave: you are the other hero. I am right, therefore you will fail; but in the highly unlikely case that I'm wrong, Reshiram can stop me if you awaken it. Then you must defeat the Pokémon League after I do so and stop me. If you can win that battle, I will know I was wrong and stop my cause. But I won't lose the battle. You must search for the light stone. Team Plasma is searching for the dark stone that will resurrect Zekrom. Good luck and may the best win."

He began walking off when Boreas stopped him. "N, wait. I want to ask something... Uh... How's Aqua?"

"Physically she's alright, but you hurt her deeply mentally. She's very, very angry at you and very sad."

"Oh... Tell her... Tell her I'm..." Suddenly he realised he was about to apologise to a traitor who was partially responsible for Capella's death. "Tell her nothing."

N shrugged and walked off. It was silent for a while as they thought over his words. "Completely bonkers," Black mumbled. "But he has provided us with a way of stopping Team Plasma that's within our reach. It's probably a heap of nonsense, but we have to stop him! There will be time to go back to Nuvema later. Now we must find that light stone, and we must earn two more badges so we can challenge the League if N does. Are you with me?"

All of them, one by one, nodded and told Black they would help him stop N. But something irked Boreas. "But what about the Sages? I doubt they'll give up so easily, even if N thinks they will..." But he also nodded, as he wanted to stop N too.

"Then I must go talk to Skyla. I'll tell her all this and she can tell the other Gym Leaders, particularly Lenora. If anyone knows whether there is any truth to this legend and where the light stone could be, it'll be her."

As Black walked back to the Gym, Boreas decided he might as well get to the tricky business. "Octa? I'm sorry for what I said to you in Chargestone Cave."

Octa sniffed haughtily and frowned. "Oh, are you? Well, evidently that solves everything."

Boreas was startled by Octa's sarcastic reaction, he had expected at least a bit of reciprocation. "Yeah. I- I didn't have myself under control. I was filled with more fury than I'd ever felt, and I couldn't help but lash it out. I shouldn't have, especially not to you. It's just... Capella had just died _and_ then Aqua was with N... I wanted to take revenge, and you were wise enough to step in and I just couldn't help it..."

Octa said nothing but just stared at him.

"Thanks for trying to save me from doing something really stupid... I wish you had succeeded in stopping me... You're a real friend for trying to stop me from ruining myself, and I'm so sorry for what I said to you..."

Octa still said nothing. Boreas wondered if their friendship was really over this time, but he refused to believe that. He cringed as he remembered exactly what he had said to Octa. "I shouldn't have threatened you. I can understand if you find that unforgivable; you were trying to save me from my own idiocy and I threatened you for it... What's even worse, I think I would've made true on that threat if you had kept stopping me... I feel like such a bastard for it. Maybe I don't deserve your friendship."

Octa still said nothing, but Boreas could see cracks appear in his cold, stern exterior. "I'm so sorry for calling you haughty and arrogant, you aren't, not really. Just proud, and rightly so... I don't think you're an inbred twit at all, your family probably has inbred much less than others thanks to your extensive knowledge of your own family tree; and you are a very clever, wise person. Much wiser than me, that's for certain. I shouldn't have called you meddlesome: you were trying to protect me from my own stupidity and I should've realised it. Your ancestors aren't idiotic, if they gave rise to you they must've been great people. You were my best friend, and I want you to be that again because you are in incredibly good friend. I'm sorry for everything, Octa."

It was silent for a moment, then Octa grabbed him and hugged him tightly. "I forgive you, my dear fellow," he whispered. "You're quite right, this is not worth it to give up a friendship like ours for. But please don't say things like that again."

–

Boreas awoke from another nightmare. 'Nightmare' was relative, of course, as most people probably wouldn't consider a dream that mostly consisted of kissing and having fun with a lovely girl a nightmare. But Boreas did; it reminded him of what he'd lost. _Why? _he asked himself furiously, _why did she betray me? We could've had such a wonderful future together and she had to go and ruin it!_

_Yeah, she shouldn't have done that. But what about you? If you hadn't reacted like you did and just remained calm you could still have had a wonderful future together. All it would've required was you saying "Aqua, I don't agree with your choice but I can respect it. Now kiss me, my love." If you hadn't acted like such a git you could still have had that wonderful future together._

_With that disgusting traitor?_

_See, that's what I meant. I called her a traitor, a bitch, a filthy slut, and a treacherous heartbreaker and tried to freeze her to death. Face it, I'm at least as guilty as her for throwing any chance at that wonderful future away._

_That's not true! She joined Team Plasma, after all the things they'd done! They killed Capella, for a start._

_She didn't know about Capella's death, though. And besides, do you really think Capella would want you to throw away your love to avenge her? I don't know what exactly she would tell me to do if she were still alive, but it certainly wouldn't involve breaking up with Aqua, I'm sure of that._

_Even if she didn't know about Capella's death, that doesn't mean she isn't responsible. And what about all the other things Plasma did? She knew about them, she knew how much those bastards hurt me and yet she joined them!_

_Yes, that was awful of her, joining them despite what they'd put me through. But she's right: it's her choice, bad though it may be, and I acted incredibly horrible to her over it. The things I said to her..._

_She deserved them._

_Maybe, but not from me! I am ashamed to think of them. She's right, if I really loved her I should've supported her and forgiven her. She trusted me to do that, and I betrayed that trust. Remember that night I spent at her burrow at the river? She may seem intelligent, self-assured, sexy, flirtatious, charming, cool, and so much more; and actually is most of those things, but she's surprisingly fragile underneath. She's like a tough wooden cabinet full of lovely delicate crystal glasses... And I took a mallet and smashed the glasses up using the key to her heart she'd entrusted me with... I filled the void in her heart, but then I cruelly left her heart empty again, and now she only has that bastard Diego to fill it with... She was clearly lying when she said she was his mate, but what if she really does hook up with him now? That would be horrible._

_Let them rot together, the miserable gits. I don't know why I'm having these thoughts in the first place. Octa always tells me to listen to my mind, not my heart, and this time I'm going to do just that._

_Don't flatter yourself into thinking this is a matter of your mind against your heart, both of these different lines of thought spring from both reason emotions. And of course, the heart isn't involved; it's just a pump that pushes my blood through my body. Both you and me are various areas of the brain, the same areas for the most part; only one of the other organs has a major impact on these thoughts. With a few rare exceptions, we're actually made by the same body parts._

_Yes, I know that. Obviously I know that, because I'm arguing with myself here. That means I know everything you know... I think I'm going nuts, talking to myself like this._

_It's a better kind of insanity than the kind that makes you insult the girl you adore and try to kill her..._

_I was not being insane! How could I just forgive her after all she did?_

_Remember what Octa said. Think about how much I love her. Is it really worth throwing _that _away?_

_What would I have me do, then? Apologise to her? Even _if _for some reason I did that, she would never forgive me._

_Probably not. I've given her good cause to hate me forever. But it's worth a try if there's even the slightest chance of getting back together._

_I don't want to get back together with that traitor!_

_Yes, I do. I love her, regardless of which side she joined. The time we were together in Driftveil was the happiest of my entire life. It's really sad that two people who are so perfect for each other have been forced apart by circumstances..._

_Circumstances she caused! She betrayed me to my worst enemies and I want nothing to do with her._

_So that's it, then? I'm going to be unhappy and miserable for the rest of my life because I can't even apologise for being so horrid to Aqua._

_I won't be unhappy for the rest of my life, because I will just get over it. I was with her for ten days, that's all. It was nothing._

_That's rubbish. I am head over heels in love with her. It was not nothing._

_I can go back to the way I was before meeting her! I was perfectly happy without her, I can be so again!_

_I didn't know what life with her was like before... I couldn't go without her now, having tasted of life with her._

_I wish I'd never met her... If only I'd just stayed on the boat when I saw her. What kind of prat was I anyway, jumping off the boat just because I saw a pretty girl? I could've drowned. And that would've been a blessing compared to this._

_So now I'm wishing I'd died. Just great. Things really have gone downhill fast since leaving Driftveil. If only I'd stayed with Aqua there... _

_If only humans wouldn't hunt wild pokémon... And if Team Plasma didn't exist... We could've been so happy together..._

_But it's too late for that now. What happened happened, I can't change that. Only the future._

_But I can't forgive her for joining Team Plasma. They've put me through too much._

_I must try... And I must apologise to her, even if she doesn't accept it. The way I acted was disgusting..._

–

Toxica lay awake too. She was lying on the ground, her regrowing flower folded for the night, but with her eyes open watching Octa sleep. Her eyes, well-adapted to see in the dark, traced his slender, serpentine form, watched his chest slowly move with his breath, and settled on his handsome face. She sighed at how attractive he was. Intelligent, charming, handsome, noble, charismatic, kind, and proper. She had been in love with him for almost a year now, ever since he'd evolved to a Servine. When she was an Oddish, he'd been her absolute hero. She had almost worshipped him, believing him perfect and amazing, and had been so embarrassingly obvious and in his face about it all in hindsight. She occasionally cringed with shame at how she had acted to him back then; it was no wonder he had never responded to her advances and Boreas was always so annoyed at her.

Evolving to a Vileplume had shifted her perspective by a surprising amount. Her obsessive, hero-worshippy crush had developed into a more mature love for him, and she had decided to give him more space and not hound him so much. _Yet here I am, watching him sleep like some kind of creepy stalker,_ she couldn't help thinking.

Then, of course, Capella died and she was far too busy grieving for her friend to continue her advances towards Octa. In fact she still felt a powerful blast of sadness whenever she thought of poor Capella. Her death had devastated Toxica, and how could it not? She was always so friendly and kind and wise and always ready with help... The past weeks had been horrid, the only long period in her life when she hadn't been cheerful most of the time. She had never before had much trouble with being cheerful; she could never stop noticing how amazing and fun the world was. But Capella's death had knocked that out of her, and for a while the world had seemed like a sad, grey place full of death. But as she slowly got over Capella's death her old cheerful demeanour was slowly beginning to return to her.

Octa softly mumbled in his sleep, and Toxica giggled like a little seedling at how incredibly sexy that was. When she was an Oddish she had on occasion kissed Octa's cheek while he slept, but now she held herself back from doing that, recognising it was a pretty creepy thing to do. Remembering all the things she did as an Oddish, she really had to wonder about her sanity back then. Who knew a simple Leaf Stone could change so much? It made her wonder what she would've been like as a Gloom, and she felt some regret at having been a Gloom for barely half a minute before evolving on. Not too much, though, she liked being a Vileplume now, but if she could do it over she would probably have to a Gloom a week before taking the Leaf Stone so she could at least have experienced it for a few days.

She realised she was never going to get any sleep watching Octa, so she tore her gaze away from him and rolled onto her back. A sky full of stars was above her. Octa had explained the stars were really balls of hydrogen and helium undergoing nuclear fusion quadrillions of kilometres away. She looked at a pretty, bright yellow star in one of the points of a pentagon of stars. Capella had once told her she'd been named after that star, and Toxica found it strangely liberating to look at it as she fell asleep.

–

AUTHOR'S NOTES: Yeah, I know Boreas' inner monologue/dialogue switches between first and second person all the time. It's intentional. More or less.

FEEDBACK: Frosty the Snow Glaceon: Q: Nice description of the battle with Skyla, it's very detailed and interesting!

A: That's quite surprising, I thought I'd horribly ballsed that battle up and made it quite boring, so it's good to hear you liked it.

Ghost of Anonymous Past: Q: "Well, they are quite a nice pair of cannons," said Black.

That is so wrong... (ROFL)

A: Why? Surely you'll agree the cannons in Skyla's gym are a nice touch? ;-)

Rattles: Q: Wooh! I thought you quit the story!

A: I once took eighteen months between two chapters of a single story. So until there's a break that long in this story, don't worry about me quitting it.

Q: Although it won't be the same without Capella...

A: It's so flattering and heartwarming to see how much people liked her.

Q: I never knew Black could be such a perv! How old is he?

A: He was seventeen at the story's start, and is approaching nineteen by now.

The Bulbafinatic: Q: Thank goodness you finally posted this! I'm 13, FINALLY! HOORAY! YAYAYAYAYAYAYAY! Also, this chapter was posted on my B-day, so that is like wicked.

A: Happy birthday.

Q: I was sort of flipping out at how long it took this chapter to get posted. THREE WEEKS. Yeah, I was going to ask, but I decided I'd just wait.

A: Yeah, I know. It's still pretty fast compared to many other fics out there, though.

Q: When you say "You'll see." in your Author Response, I'm like, oh my gosh oh my gosh what's going to happen...

A: You'll see.

Q: Teendome has suddenly transformed me into a lunatic who overuses text talk and improper grammar.

A: Well, you're still much better at writing than the average 13 year old, so don't worry.

UNKNOWN: Q: Wow, how convenient. I finally check my favs for updates and I find this story updated twice with already 99 reviews, well not anymore. Was I gone that long? Well, anyways, 'tis a great honor to claim the 100th.

A: Wow, a hundred reviews. I didn't expect this story to ever get that far, seeing how few reviews it used to get. I wonder if someone on a well-visited site linked to it or something to explain all these reviews that started showing up around chapter thirty. Anyway, I want to thank everyone who posted one of those hundred reviews, I appreciate every one.

Q: The story is, no offense, just... damn depressing. Everything just goes downhill from Capella's death. Wonder if it'll be as jolly as it used to be. Maybe this is the eye of the hurricane or perhaps... just the calm before the storm?

A: Indeed. Part six was by far the darkest part of the story before the final part (not saying that'll be darker, I just don't want to say anything either way about the ending). But I can tell you chapter 41 was the darkest point of the story before the ending. It's why it's called "In the Dead of Night". So yes, just as things have slowly been getting better in these last two chapters, so they will continue for a bit.

Q: n spite of my words, I shall remain a loyal reader, to the edge of the Abyss ( I mean the end of story, not my life, silly wabbit!) !

A: Thanks, I really appreciate that.


	44. Reunion in the Grasslands

Chapter Forty-Four: Reunion in the Grasslands

Thick rain poured down on Route 7's high grasslands, soaking Black's team entirely. The copious amounts of water didn't just come from above either: the high grasses reached as high as Black's head and were very wet, so water came from above, below, and the sides. Black didn't even bother wearing his raincoat, as it would've had about as much use as wearing it while swimming. His pokémon didn't care any more either, as they couldn't get any wetter and it was pretty warm anyway. Only Lucius was in an intensely foul mood, even for his general bad disposition, hating all the water soaking him.

The grasslands were like a thick jungle of grass and other plants. There were many different kinds of grasses and tall flowers, the thing they had in common being that they were all very tall and none of the pokémon could ever look over them, while Black only occasionally managed to. It was strange how there were no trees or shrubs, only these tall grasses and flowers though the land was not worked by farmers. Occasionally a pokémon would scurry away from them, hiding themselves between the plants. They were passing through a field of huge sunflowers when Octa suddenly stopped. Boreas stopped too.

"Octa, what's wrong?" he asked.

Octa smiled. "Nothing is wrong, my dear fellow. Much the opposite, as a matter of fact: I recognise this location."

"Recognise it?" Boreas asked non-understanding as they walked on to follow Black.

"Indeed. Together with my father, Lord Publius Cornelius. I was but a recently-hatched Snivy when he took my brother, my sisters, and myself on a journey through these fields. I shall never forget the view from the top of one of these sunflowers over the sunlit fields... 'Tis a pity it rains like this, for the view is quite splendid when the weather is clear and the day luminous."

Boreas imagined Octa as a cute young Snivy climbing into one of these sunflowers and giggled. "You mean you really climbed into one of those sunflowers?"

Octa nodded and smiled wistfully. "Indeed. 'Tis too bad those flowers shan't hold my weight any more if I were to try it again..."

Boreas thought the idea of his pompous friend climbing a sunflower was hilarious, so he decided he was going to try to convince him do it. It wouldn't be very hard to convince him, judging by the nostalgia in Octa's voice. "I'm not so sure of that. Look at these flowers, they're huge and strong. And you're pretty slender and light. They could probably support you."

Octa smiled with childlike glee and seemed ready to climb a flower, but then he suppressed his smile. "I... I don't think it could hold me."

"Don't worry, some of these flowers are big enough to be called trees. If they can hold themselves up, surely they can hold you."

"They could not be called trees, no matter how pantagruelian, for their stems are herbaceous and do not contain any lignin."

"Right, but either way, they could probably support your weight."

"Wwwell..." Octa seemed almost unable to resist the temptation. "I don't think I should. It would not be very proper."

"Oh, c'mon. What's the harm of a little bit of light-hearted fun? It'll be just like when you were young."

"I..." a determined grin entered Octa's face. "Oh, sod it, I'm going to climb that flower!"

Boreas chuckled as Octa began climbing a sunflower, using the leaves as footholds. The stem was indeed strong enough to support him at first, but bent as he climbed higher. Boreas held the stem to help support it, and soon Octa reached the flower. Black and all his pokémon looked on in disbelief as Octa laughed happily while he looked out from the flower. Then the stem cracked and he fell onto the ground.

"What on Earth got into you, Octa?" Black asked.

"I was merely scouting ahead," Octa explained blushing.

As they all walked on, Octa started walking next to Boreas again. "Well, wasn't that fun?" Boreas asked.

"Hmm, yes, quite," said Octa as he brushed the mud off himself. "'Twas most certainly an interesting flashback to my early childhood. Though the weather is far less aestival than it was last time, and the flora seems smaller than it seemed then."

"So, if your father took you here when you were young, you must've been born near," Boreas wondered.

"Crimson breeders is indeed located on Route 7, and with it of course my ancestral home. Though 'tis not quite proximal to our current location, for 'tis still several days of travel away."

"You must be excited to get back home! I mean, you haven't been there in more than a year."

"Indeed, my dear fellow, I am rather looking forward to a reunion with my family and shall endeavour to visit as we pass by."

"I'm looking forward to it too. You talk about your family so much; it'll be fun meeting them at last."

"You... want to meet them too?" Octa asked with concern.

"Well, yeah. I mean, if we're going there I'd love to meet them."

"Hmm," Octa pondered. "I suppose you could all meet my family... Though I'd have to teach you the proper etiquette first... Hmm, come to think of it, I don't think you could do it."

"Of course I could! I'll be all proper and all that."

"I wasn't just talking about you, though it does concern me that your rapid temper might cause you to forget proper etiquette. Think about the others: Lucius would likely deliberately offend my family merely for the fun of it. Selene just shan't understand. Toxica..." his voice trailed off.

"I'm sure they'd do much better than you think. Especially Toxica, if you tell her the etiquette you want her to follow, I'm sure she'll do so precisely."

"Well... Yes... But... There might be other problems. Though I suppose I could give you a chance... Fortunately it won't be a direct issue for several days."

As they walked, they heard the rustling sounds of pokémon in the grass to their left. Usually those sounds would quickly disappear as the pokémon scurried off, but this time the pokémon kept close for quite a while. Black suddenly seemed to realise this and the fact that his team now had only five pokémon, as he hushed his pokémon, grabbed a pokéball, and started sneaking to the sounds, ordering his pokémon with gestures.

Boreas sneaked through the grass, approaching the rustling sound. He could see it now vaguely through the grass, quite big and dark. He parted the grass and yelped in surprise when he saw a large, bipedal black fox with long black and crimson hair. He recognised the shoulder tufts pointing up like spikes and the dark purple eyes flaring with malice immediately.

"You!" he exclaimed.

"You!" Diego exclaimed as he immediately jumped into a defensive stance. Boreas now saw the rest of N's team too. Anger, adoration, embarrassment, hate, love, contempt, sorrow, and loads of other emotions all fought to be first as he saw Aqua. Her face tried on several different expressions for a moment, then settled on cold contempt.

"What's going on?" Black asked as he emerged from the grasses. "Oh, it's you."

"Uh," spoke N, "hi."

They sort of stood there, not sure what to do. Boreas and Diego both waited for the other to attack, but relaxed a bit when he didn't do that. Aqua was looking somewhere else, pretending she didn't see Boreas. But then Diego shot her a glance that made Boreas shiver: he looked almost hungry as he looked at her.

"I..." said N, "I guess we'll be going on. We'll see you later."

With a sneering smile, Diego turned and followed N. But Boreas was too busy struggling with the flood of emotions that Aqua unleashed in him to even bother thinking about fighting his nemesis. Aqua was following N, still not giving Boreas a single look. Part of him wanted to do the same, part of him wanted to apologise deeply to her, part of her wanted to kill her, part of her just wanted to look at her as she walked by, and all these parts tried to make their preferred course of action happen.

"Wait!" Boreas blurted out. N and his pokémon stopped and looked at him in surprise, including Aqua, though she quickly turned her gaze away to look at a raindrop dripping from a strand of grass.

Boreas was quite aware he was expected to say or do something now, but he couldn't get himself to say more. N shrugged and was about to walk off when Boreas managed to say something else. "Aqua, can I talk to you in private?"

It took her a while to answer. She opened her mouth several times, then retracted her answer and closed it. She almost turned to look at Boreas, but eventually she softly said: "No."

Several emotions struggled for power as she turned away and began walking off morosely. But he felt he really needed to apologise and didn't care that everyone would hear it. "I'm sorry, Aqua. I'm so sorry!" Aqua stopped and looked at him. "The things I said and did were unforgivable. I don't agree with your choice at all, but I should've been supportive of it. After what we had together it was wrong of me to treat you like that. I was just... I was crushed by Capella's death three days earlier. I... My life for those three days had been a pitch-black cave of despair, and the thought that I would be reunited with you was the only light in my life... When you showed up with them, I-I- my emotions just went berserk... I-I tried to control it, b-but" tears where streaming over Boreas' cheeks now, "I-I couldn't. The things I said and did to you... Th-that was the worst day of my life, Aqua, worse than the day my family died or even the day Capella died... I behaved profoundly horrible to you, the most wonderful person I know, and I tried to kill you. It's unforgivable, and I just want you to know how sorry I am for it, even if you can't forgive me and never want to see me again."

Only the sound of the rain was audible for a while, but Aqua looked Boreas straight in the eyes. He could see a great sadness in there, and she was crying too. Finally she spoke, her voice trembling. "Y-you're right, Boreas. What you did was indeed unforgivable. I-I want to forgive you, because I really believe you're sorry, but I just can't... I keep hearing the horrible things you said... But you're not the only one to apologise. It was my own fault too... I should've been more considerate of your feelings. Joining N, right though that choice was, without even considering your feelings was very bad of me. I should've realised how it must feel like high treason after all Team Plasma has put you through... Maybe it was high treason... I-I am sorry for it. And for the things I said and did too... I tried to keep calm, but you just... Infuriated me beyond control. I said some very hurtful things to you, things I should never have said. I-I don't believe for even a second that you really are only interested in my looks, for instance. I-I just didn't have my anger under control... Like you... Turning to Team Plasma was horribly inconsiderate of me... All this is my fault, and I-I wish you can forgive me for it, but I don't even think I can forgive myself..."

Boreas felt very moved by her heartfelt apology, but part of him kept seeing her as a traitor and an accessory to Capella's death. "I'm sorry, Aqua... But I don't think I can forgive you... Though I will try..."

Aqua nodded, crying. "I try to forgive you too, but it's so hard... Even if it's ultimately my fault."

"No, it isn't! Well, I guess it is... But it's more my fault for overreacting so horribly. I should just forgive you..."

"We'll both try forgiving each other," said Aqua, "because the days I spent with you in Driftveil were the happiest of my life..."

Boreas sighed. "Mine too, mine too... Things were so amazing then, just you and me and nothing else..."

It was silent for about a minute as they reminisced. "So..." Boreas asked, dreading the answer, "what happens next? With us, I mean..."

Another long silence fell. Then Aqua said: "Well, I think I can see two possibilities. The first is that we don't forgive each other and carry on as we have for the past month: enemies. We try not to be as hateful of each other as we were, but... No "us" of any kind."

"No..." Boreas said breathlessly, "please... I don't want that..."

"Neither do I. It might be the easiest option, but I want to avoid that no matter what. I have a second idea, though. We try to forgive each other and part as friends. We carry on on our respective sides, but we avoid directly fighting each other at all cost and try to remain friends no matter what. And after all this is over and one side has won... Maybe then there can be an "us" again, but until then we'll always have Driftveil..."

Boreas nodded. "I like that better," he said. "But I have an even better idea."

"What is it? What happens?"

"I don't know," Boreas stated as he walked closer to Aqua. "I haven't the faintest idea what happens, all I know is that it starts with you and me walking off together. After that, who knows?"

Aqua raised her eyebrows. "What, now?"

"When else?" Boreas smiled.

"So by this idea, we would have no plan, no idea of what will happen. It's just an uncertain gamble into a chaotic future. I love it, let's go!"

They began running off together through the grass, ignoring those they left behind and most of their questions. But Boreas felt he at least owed Octa, who was trying to keep up with them and threw a question after them: "My dear fellow, where are you going?"

"I don't know!" Boreas laughed.

"Well, when will you be back? Will you be back?"

"I don't know!" Boreas stated. "We'll see what happens later."

"But how will you find us again if you wish to return?" Octa asked with concern.

"Don't worry, Octa,"said Aqua. "A captured pokémon wouldn't know this, but humans are really easy to find in the wild, even at great distances. The noise and smell they carry with them makes them very easy to find. We can find Black back, don't worry."

The sounds of Octa's pursuit fell behind. "Goodbye then, my dear fellow!"

–

They stopped running after a while and just walked together, unsure of what to say to each other. They walked through the tall plants and pouring rain in awkward silence. They weren't sure how to behave to each other, as each still harboured a powerful core of hate, yet wanted to forgive the other and kiss them more than anything. Suddenly a bolt of lightning provided an entry into a conversation about the weather, a nice and safe subject neither of them had put much emotional stock in. The conversation gradually eased up as they both felt more and more at ease with each other. Talking to Aqua like this was like a breath of fresh air after spending several minutes under water to Boreas. He had forgotten how much fun it was to talk to Aqua, and for now he had completely forgotten his spiteful anger towards her. They laughed and had fun together as they talked about absolutely nothing. Boreas was getting completely immersed in the amazing company. He had to restrain himself not to stare deep into her pretty black eyes, or give her hips more than the occasional glance, or intricately look at the way her muscles moved under her gleaming blue fur as she walked.

Aqua sighed. "It's so nice to talk with you like this again... I had more or less forgotten what it feels like to simply be with you..."

A shiver of pleasure shot up Boreas' spine as their tails briefly brushed against each other. The momentary physical contact made him realise just how much he was in love with her again. "Yeah..." he sighed, "I can't believe I jeopardised this just out of stupid anger... I was being such an arse."

"No," said Aqua, who corrected herself: "Well, yes. But it was largely my fault. I was being very selfish and inconsiderate. And there was Capella's death, I'm sure you would've been much more understanding if she hadn't become a casualty..."

The horrifying image of Capella's mangled body exhaling her last breath as she lay in his arms with no more skin on her skull hit him again like a heavy mallet crashing into his heart. Tears shot into his eyes and he could barely continue walking. His former hate against Aqua came back in force, much though he tried to tell himself that she'd had nothing to do with it.

"What's wrong, Boreas?" Aqua asked with concern, and Boreas saw her approach him through a veil of tears.

"Nothing, stay away from me!" He said with spiteful sharpness.

"I'm sorry," Aqua spoke sadly, "I shouldn't have brought Capella up... I know she meant much to you, and I would've done anything to save her if I could've..." Suddenly she embraced Boreas. He struggled for a moment, still irrationally angry at her, but then relished in the contact with her soft body and cried on her shoulder.

"I-I'm sorry, I shouldn't have got angry at you again... I-I saw her death before me again, Aqua... She died in my arms after saving my life..."

"Did she?" Aqua whispered in his ear as she rubbed his back. "I didn't know that..."

"W-we were fighting Sage Ryoku's Lilligant together, when his Tangrowth suddenly picked us both up by our tails... I tried to Ice Beam it, but it was still smouldering with Lucius' flames and my ice only brought it relief... Then that bastard ordered his Cradily to Hyper Beam us both... Capella and I looked each other in the eyes, and as I saw her smile and the fatality in her eyes, I knew what she would do... That look on her face... She knew exactly what would happen, yet she so bravely did it to save me. I tried to tell her to save herself, but she'd already spit flames at the vine holding me... She-she tried to save herself next, but she was too late: I only saw a blinding light with her as a smoke-like wisp in it and felt a searing pain as the tip of my tail was caught in the beam and annihilated... I thought she'd been vaporised, but it was much worse: the Hyper Beam blasted most of her flesh off her front side. But her backside was turned away from the beam and more or less alright, so when she landed next to me with that side to me I thought she was alright and I hugged her... And then I saw her... The image will never leave my mind, Aqua. Most of her flesh had been blasted away; I c-could see what was left of her organs and saw her skull instead of her face... But she was still alive. Her badly damaged heart beat a few more times and her one remaining lung drew one final breath before she died... I tried to tell her to evolve, but... Well... Sh-she died there in my arms..."

"Oh, my poor, poor Boreas..." Aqua whispered breathlessly in his ear as she softly nuzzled his hair and rubbed his back to comfort him.

Boreas kept shedding his tears on her shoulder. Feeling the pain of Capella's death again was crushing, but sharing it with Aqua like this was strangely liberating. He hadn't told anyone about what had precisely happened more than a month ago, as fact that she was dead mattered more to the rest of the team than the precise details, and it was far too painful to hear for them. He lay on the ground, shaking with tears in Aqua's embrace, but slowly calmed down.

"Thank you..." he said, "I've had no chance to tell anyone yet and you don't know how much that helped..."

"I think I do, actually," Aqua whispered back. "You did the same for me when I told you about Lothario's death..."

Now he remembered. "Oh yeah... I did... Wow, that was ages ago."

"Less than two months actually, my love. We only met each other two months ago to the day."

"It feels like a lifetime," said Boreas. "I wonder how much different my life would've been if I hadn't jumped out of the boat to go talk to a certain gorgeous Vaporeon."

Aqua giggled. "Not that different. I was quite interested in you too, remember, and would probably have followed you to talk to you if you hadn't come to me. I mean, I was very lonely at the time and longed for someone to talk to. Besides, you looked quite attractive and fun to talk to, my clever, heroic, handsome Boreas..."

Boreas sneered. "You can leave the 'handsome' out of there. I don't imagine I look too handsome with the tip of my tail missing and a bloody great scar on my face."

Aqua brought her face in front of his. "The bit out of the tail is a shame, but it doesn't change anything about how much I like you. And as for the scar..." She began tracing it with her front paw. Boreas was even more aware than before of how close she was holding him, their bodies pressed close against each other. "I like it. It looks pretty good on you, actually. A clearly visible memory of great heroics in battle. It makes you look..." She was now talking with her face barely ten centimetres away from his, giving him looks that made his blood boil. Her tongue seemed to beckon him as she talked. "Dangerous. Rakish. Who knows what could happen to me while someone with a scar like that is holding me?"

"What indeed?" Boreas whispered as their lips softly touched each other. The feeling of the kiss was intense and overpoweringly wonderful, and they immediately wrapped all four legs and their tails tightly around each other as they kissed passionately, never wishing it to end.

–

AUTHOR'S NOTES: Aww, it's been far too long since any of this lovey-dovey stuff happened in the story. Writing the dark and gloomy part six was fun in its own way, but I'm very happy that for now I got to do another romantic happy chapter again.

FEEDBACK: Guardian54: Q: Excellent as usual, however I would like to know if Black will eventually "get the girl" so to speak. There are typically a few types of heroes and their lovers (if applicable).What type is Black going to be?

A: Well, A: I'm not going to spoil it, of course, 2: Black is not really the hero of the story; that's Boreas. Make of that what you will with regard to love stories, and sixthly and lastly I have not really considered Black's crush on Skyla as more than a brief joke. That is not to say it'll neccesarily remain that way, though.

Q: I have a final request: can you have Black catch a Togepi? And put White Forest into this story so that he can do so?

A: I'm afraid not. The final five parts of the story are mostly planned out at the moment and there simply isn't room for stuff like that any more, as the final four will be quite busy with stuff happening. If you'd asked this sooner I might've considered putting it into this part, but by now I have it too planned out. Same goes for White Forest; I had plans to do easern Unova in a short sequel dealing with the Seven Sages' plan B after their original plan failed. But that was when I still thought I was going to do the ending very much like it is in the games, since then I've changed my plans for the ending radically. The ending will be much better like this, but it makes the short sequel I had an idea for, and thus easern Unova, pretty unlikely.

Q: A Togekiss has 545 base stat total and access to Sky Attack, Fly, Hyper Beam, Shadow Ball, Psychic, and Fire Blast, all very good moves to use. I think the highest no-legendary is Arcanine with base stat total 555, so Togekiss is probably the toughest non-legendary flier, a good asset for a team...

A: The highest non-legendary base stat total is actually Slaking with 670; then Dragonite, Tyranitar, Salamence, Metagross, Garchomp, and Hydreigon with 600; then Archeops with 567, and only then comes Arcanine with 555. Though Arcanine is indeed the highest non-legendary and non-pseudo-legendary without a crippling ability. But anyway, Black's team is not really the strongest pokémon around, more like the pokémon I like a lot. And I'm not really a fan of Togekiss.

Q: it's also quite cute and the Togepi/Togetic could be a good present for Skyla. Let's hope her tits don't suffocate the poor thing when she hugs it though...

A: Lol, what a way to die that would be.

Frosty the Snow Glaceon: Q: I liked how you described Boreas' inner conflict, that was interesting to read, I do hope that Aqua and Boreas can make up once the apologies are said to each other. Update soon!

A: Thanks. Well, they seem to have made up (as well as made out). For now.

Saphira: Q: Oh! Inner conflicts always make things interesting, I do believe that Aqua and Boreas still have a chance to be together!

A: Indeed. Inner conflict can be quite interesting. And, well, I suppose this chapter proves you right!

REV6Pilot: Q: I see you decided to start developing the other side characters. The indirect development of Octa, and Toxica's POV part, were things that gave them quite a bit more soul in my view.

A: Indeed, their lack of development has been bugging me for a while and your review reminded me I should really get to it. Expect to see more of them soon.

Q: And as a side note, when I said she seemed like a shallow love interest, I meant her as a character whose main purpose is being paired up with someone else of the cast. I wasn't looking down on her, just the way she was presented.

A: Interesting thing is that I never seriously considered Toxica as a serious love interest or possible pairing for Octa until pretty recently. Before, I was basically just playing it as a joke. Now I'm considering it. I haven't decided what's going to happen either way, but her crush on Octa will certainly be treated more seriously from now on.

Q: Not meaning to rush you, but could you possibly write more scenes focusing on Aqua? Not because she is my favorite (because she isn't, that throne belongs to Boreas), but mainly because watching the war from the other trench is very interesting.

A: We will indeed see some stuff from the other side. Not just from Aqua, but from Diego too.

SquareRootofNine: Q: I've always liked it how you go really deep into the emotional conflict. I can actually feel what Boreas is feeling. And when it was resolved? Sweet relief.

A: That's amazing to hear, even if I've heard someone say it before. It makes me very happy to hear someone say something like that. Speaking of very happy, I think you'll really like this chapter and the next if you feel so much of what Boreas is feeling.

Q: I like the way you expanded on the whole death and devastation theme, but I started getting a little bit impatient after a while, so I'm glad that it's finally becoming a little less dark.

A: Yeah, I know what you mean. Dragging Boreas through hell was fun in its own way and very interesting to me, but I'm very glad to finally be giving him a break. It was getting very hard to write by chapters 41 and 42 (one of the reasons why 42 took so long), and this is much of a relief to write.

The Bulbafinatic: Q: Well, glad to see that this story is back on its regular, weekly-posted track.

A: Usually, it's a bit more than weekly and a bit less than biweekly, actually. On average, not counting the really long breaks when my writing was disrupting by something, I think it's about once every four or five days.

Q: Boreas was being just awesome, apologizing to Octa like that. I didn't know that people (Pokémon...?) could do that.

A: It wasn't easy for him to do, but better than permanently ending his friendship with Octa.

Q: Sometimes it's awful to see people refuse to forgive, even if it would make their life full of wonderful surprises and goody gumdrops. Boreas, you love Aqua! WHY CAN'T YOU SEE THAT? THE ANSWER IS RIGHT THERE!

A: Looks like your hopes got answered. Though he still hasn't completely forgiven her, things are definitely going better for them now.

Q: And what is Diego up to?

A: Quite a lot, actually. Fortunately only a small part of it directly involves Aqua and Boreas.

Q: It would be horrifying if Boreas went to apologize to his girlfriend, only to find her saying, "Boreas, I'm so sorry. Diego is my mate." Wait! Don't let that spark an idea! No! Stop! WAIT!

A: Yeah, that would be really nasty. But believe me, Diego's still got plenty of unpleasant surprises in store.

Q: Advertisement for a story.

A: Sorry, but if you have a suggestion for a story for me to read I prefer you PM it to me, rather than spam it into my reviews. That's for comments about this story, after all, not for advertising other stories. Either way, it's no big deal and I'll check it out sometime when I have time for it.

Sir Raymond Quaza: Q: So NOW Octa has forgiven Boreas. Thank goodness. And now Boreas is ready to forgive Aqua. Just hope he doesn't find out that Diego's been hitting on his girl.

A: Yeah, that wouldn't improve his dtanding towards Diego, and the Zoroark had better watch out in that case. Then again, he's still twice as big and five times as strong as Boreas.

Q: Is Diego intended to be a (rude, but) well intentioned extremist, or flat-out evil?

A: Both; the two aren't mutually exclusive. Like most of Team Plasma, he's essentially well-intentioned. Like most of Team Plasma, he's also quite evil.


	45. The Ancient and Most Noble House Equinox

Chapter Forty-Five: The Ancient and Most Noble House of Equinox

Octa was looking cheerful for the first time in days. He had been gloomy and depressed ever since Boreas had left without saying whether he'd ever come back. Toxica had tried to cheer him up and make up for the leaving of his best friend by spending a lot of time with him and talking to him a lot, but it seemed she just wasn't a replacement for Boreas. Octa remained gloomy, though she could understand why: she missed Boreas too and hoped he'd come back soon.

But when Black had seen the road to Crimson breeders and told his pokémon he'd see if they could rest there for the night, Octa's mood had changed radically. The prospect of getting to meet his family again for the first time in a year clearly brightened his mood. He was chatting amicably with Toxica when a Servine jumped out of the bushes they'd passed by, Leaf Blade drawn.

"Halt, miscreants! How dare you intrude upon land possessed by the most noble house of Equinox?"

Toxica yelped in fear and surprise. Lucius growled threateningly, while Selene on his shoulder was clearly more interested in one of the moons in the sky. Black hadn't noticed the Servine, though, as he was a bit ahead. Octa drew his own Leaf Blade and crossed it with the other Servine's. "Ha, miscreants?" he replied in grandiose voice, "you shall pay for that, you surreptitious serpent! You're naught but a petty bandit, attacking weary travellers like us!"

The attacker trusted forward, but Octa dodged the blade with an elegant twist that made Toxica's heart do little jumps in her chest. Octa, using his opponent's temporary disorientation, trusted his own blade to his enemy's abdomen, only to have it parried swiftly. "How dare you, sir," the opponent asked, "to insult a Servine of noble blood by referring to him as a bandit! Forsooth, I shall have you know I have cut men to pieces for insults less than that."

Octa parried his strike and immediately reposed with a swift flash of his own blade, giving the other Servine a shallow cut. On the arm. Octa grinned. "My little sister is quicker with the blade than you, sir."

The other Servine grinned too. "Of course she is, she's faster than anyone in the family." Both sheeted their swords and suddenly hugged each other. "Octa, it's jolly amazing to see you again!"

Toxica looked at their hug, dumbstruck with surprise. "Marcus, how I've missed you!" Octa laughed.

"What the hell's going on?" Lucius asked with annoyance.

Octa disengaged from his hug with the other Servine. "Marcus, let me introduce you to my companions. These are Toxica, Selene, and Lucius. There's also Black, our trainer, who I believe hasn't noticed you holding us up yet, and Boreas, a Glaceon who is not with us at the moment. My friends and Lucius, this is my brother, Marcus Aurelius the second of the house of Equinox."

"Good morrow," Marcus greeted each of them. Now that Toxica looked at him, he did look remarkably similar to Octa, but his face was broader, his voice higher in pitch, and he had light blue eyes rather than Octa's camel brown eyes. Though Toxica found him less handsome than Octa, he was still considerably attractive to her and she found herself worrying whether her flower still looked good after its recovery from the cuts it had received in battle against Ryoku.

Toxica extended her hand. "Hi. Fancy meeting Octa's brother."

To her surprise Marcus didn't just shake her hand, but he knelt and kissed it. "A pleasure to meet you, milady Toxica. I invite you, as well as your friends, to join us in our ancestral home."

Toxica felt like her brain was boiling and her heart trying to jump out of her mouth. She stammered incoherently for a bit as Octa's almost equally handsome brother got up and released her hand. "You only mentioned your friends' first names, Octa, what are their houses?"

"I'm afraid they do not belong to any houses," Octa grinned apologetically.

"Commoners? Oh dear. Great-aunt Galaxia shan't like that, you know."

"I know, I was considering inventing some houses for them to silence her potential misgivings."

"Heh, don't bother. The old hag knows every house, even of different species of pokémon, and shall see through your lies at once."

Octa's brow furrowed. "My dear brother, our great-aunt may not be the most pleasant creature on the planet, but that is no reason to talk about her like that."

"My apologies. 'Tis easy to speak ill of another if said person thoroughly irritated one that very morning."

Octa nodded. "Fine, I accept your apology. Now let us go on, Black is probably quite a way ahead already and might start worrying about us."

–

Toxica had never before seen pokémon live in a home that was larger, richer, and more decorated than their human owners'. Crimson breeders' central house, where the owners lived, was a rather plain wooden building with a permanently dirty floor and few, and pastoral, decorations inside. It had a pleasant charm about it that made you think a pleasant little houses in the mountains, but Octa's ancestral house was by comparison a palace. It was much larger, made mostly of stone, even of marble and granite in places. Its high, arched entrance was supported by lavish columns and statues of various Snivies, Servines, and Serperiors. After welcoming them into their house, Octa reunited with various members of his family, all at least as graceful and elegant as him, with oddly ritualised yet affectionate greetings. Then Octa introduced them all to his family one by one, and soon Toxica was struggling to remember the loads and loads of different forms of courtesy and address Octa and Marcus had quickly run her though as they walked the final bit to their home...

"_Address everyone except my father and me as "sir" or "milady". Address my father as "Lord Publius Cornelius". As my friend, there is no need to address me as "sir"."_

"_Unless Great-Aunt Galaxia is in the room."_

"_Indeed. Don't speak unless spoken to to any of my family members. If you need to ask anything of them, ask me instead."_

"_Unless Great-Aunt Galaxia is in the room, in which case, don't ask it at all."_

"_Indeed. When encountering a member of my family, bow deferentially to them. Never touch anyone, nor make eye contact with them. Treat every member of the family, including myself, with the highest respect and as an utter superior."_

"_Especially when Great-Aunt Galaxia is in the room."_

"_Indeed. This also includes Marcus here. Though he is not currently standing on ceremony, I want you to treat him properly too when we are in my ancestral home, for he is of the house of Equinox as well."_

"_Especially when Great-Aunt Galaxia is in the room."_

"_Indeed. At dinner, use the cutlery provided to you properly; fork in your left hand, front paw, or wing; knife in your right. Only use a spoon for food it's specifically meant for, use a knife otherwise. Never speak with food or drink in your mouth, even when spoken to, and observe the proper ways to eat from me. Don't ask for a second plate or a refill unless asked. Don't spill food or drink, don't make digestive noises."_

"_Especially when-"_

"_Will you please stop saying that? I believe the message is quite clear. Now, my great-aunt Galaxia can be rather troublesome. Her beliefs with regard to class are rather outdated, therefore she shall look onto you as servants as best. Be extra deferential and proper around her, and obey her every command. When inside, you can still treat me as a friend, but be more deferential. You can use the nickname 'Octa' when addressing me, but not when Great-Aunt Galaxia is in the room; use my full name or call me "sir" if she is."_

Toxica tried to remember the names of everyone she bowed to greet, but the long names featuring lots of c's, q's, and x'es quickly became one blur in her mind, especially since they were all the same species and had the same haughty bearing. She recognised many of Octa's features in his family, ranging from his face to his voice and mannerisms. After the introductions, Toxica found herself admitted into the house, and quite unsure of what to do. Almost two dozen Snivies, Servines, and Serperiors were home at the moment, and all of them wanted to speak to Octa and considered her and the others as if they were his pets at best. Since Lucius was a jerk and she didn't feel like dealing with Selene's particular brand of insanity right now, she pretty much sat on a chair clearly not meant for her species in a corner and just listened to Octa retell his adventures to his family. She really wished Boreas was here now, because though he could be quite annoying and she didn't get much time to talk to Octa with him around, he was also a pretty nice and funny person, and much more on her level than Lucius or Toxica, or even Octa, was. If Boreas was here, she thought, he'd probably be whispering some witty remarks now to make her giggle.

As Octa told his tale to his family, she looked around the room. It was lavishly, though not quite baroquely, decorated with loads of statues and paintings and beautiful marble. Most of the art depicted what clearly were members of the House of Equinox, recognisable by their pentafurcated tails and backleaves, curly collars, non-absent front legs, and faces similar to Octa's that seemed to be shared in the entire family, doing something heroic. A beautiful painting of Vigintus, Octa's ancestor who had belonged to Sir Edward Slateport, discovering Hoenn; the famous human sea captain himself only a minor detail in the painting's background, was especially drawing her attention. If Octa would look that amazing after evolving to a Serperior, she could barely wait.

It was a bit odd, now that she thought of it, that all Octa's family members seemed to have front legs even as Serperiors. She was pretty sure Serperiors normally had no legs at all, but Octa's family still had their front legs. Then again, she supposed it was quite useful as she looked at a painting of an ancestor wielding a Leaf Blade in one of them, duelling an evil-looking human wielding a metal blade. She remembered when she was an Oddish and had no front legs herself. While it never seemed that much of a problem at the time, having hands to do things with was a massive improvement and she couldn't even think how she would manage anything without them now.

She became aware of a piercing, withering stare fixated on her. An old Serperior, her tail and back-leaves curled and yellow with the autumn of age, was staring at her with a disgusted scowl that most people reserve for the insects you occasionally find instead of the nut when you open a pistachio. Though she had forgotten most of the names of Octa's family members, she did remember Great-Aunt Galaxia. She remembered what Octa and Marcus had said about her and resisted the urge to stare back or gesture to ask her what her problem was.

She tried to listen to Octa's stories or to marvel at the amazing room again, but Galaxia's stare was like two ice-cold daggers being stuck further and further into her flesh. Even cocking her head so that her flower covered her face didn't feel like it shielded her from that stare, perfected through dozens of generations. She knew Octa could stare like that too, but his stare was not nearly as piercing as Galaxia's. The house of Equinox had spent generations practising that stare to get fellow pokémon, and even their human trainers, to do whatever it was they needed, even at great personal risk, as long as it made them stop that stare. Even great men like Sir Edward Slateport had not been able to resist giving in to their companion's stare, and currently Toxica was having to fight her urge to listen to that stare and get out of the house to instead stay with the humans were Black was staying for the night. Her flower instinctively gave of pollen and a nasty smell and she sweated sap under that stare's pressure. She angrily decided to stare back, so she made eye-contact. It felt almost as if she was trying to win a staring contest against the Sun, except the discomfort was mental, not physical. Her eyes began watering and blinking within two seconds and she had to look away, completely unable to continue challenging Galaxia's stare.

She was about to give in and run away from the house when Octa, knowingly or not, saved her by talking specifically to Galaxia, forcing her attention away from Toxica. She breathed out, the stare's terrible pressure taking off her, and stooped a bit in the chair, delighted to be freed of it.

–

Toxica lay in the lavish bed she had been given for the night. The fact that this simple guest room was far more beautiful and richer than any other room she'd ever slept in was quite telling. The bed had a gilded frame with fake plants and even birds on it and the mattress was amazingly soft and warm. Several small artworks, mainly of family members as usual, were hung up on one wall, while the other three were covered in bookcases from floor to ceiling. It was amazing how many books were in this house; this was not at all the only room with walls fully covered in bookcases. Now at least she knew how Octa'd got his extensive knowledge of so many topics.

Things had actually gone surprisingly well. Though dinner began formal and Toxica had despaired thinking that no-one would say a word to her, her neighbours soon loosened up. She had got into a conversation with Octa's mother Claudia, his sister Livia, and their uncle Brittanicus. He was not technically Octa's uncle, he explained, but the husband of Octa's actual uncle, who had died several years earlier while exploring Mt. Silver's deep caverns with his trainer, and the family had since treated Brittanicus as their own son. His mother was a friendly, though slightly condescending Serperior named Claudia Marcella, and had come from a different family of Serperiors before being betrothed to Lord Publius Cornelius. Octa's sister Livia's wit was even sharper than her brother's, and she made several jokes that made Toxica giggle uncontrollably and Claudia frown and stare at her daughter.

Apparently, Team Plasma had even attacked Crimson breeders while Octa was gone, stating that their breeding of pokémon and selling them like inanimate objects was unethical. The entire family Equinox had helped their breeders defend against the attackers, fortunately without suffering any casualties. After some encouragement by Livia, Brittanicus had quite an amazing story to tell of his role in the battle, as he had led several pokémon in a flanking manoeuvre that had practically been the only reason they had won the battle at all, especially without casualties. Livia assured Toxica Brittanicus had still been very modest and downplayed the whole matter.

All in all, they made surprisingly good conversational partners, and Livia had even shown her around the mansion after dinner. The room that made the greatest impression on Toxica was a big room where an extensive family tree was beautifully painted on the walls. The intricate, green and purple tree wasn't oriented vertically as Toxica would've expected, but horizontally, from left to right; wrapping around two corners and making it almost halfway around the room before ending. It was a good thing it was drawn this way, as there would never have been enough room for the entire family if it had been a vertical tree. It was impressively detailed, showing all thirty-five generations of Octa's family, starting at the right of the door with Equinox I and his five children and running intricately through every generation before ending almost opposite the door with Octa, Livia, Marcus, and their brother Gaius, who wasn't at home, as well as a whole lot of cousins. Every generation except the current one had a small portrait of them painted by their name. Livia explained that this was because they hadn't evolved to Serperiors yet, so their portraits would be made later when they did. Toxica remembered quite a few of the names in the tree from Octa's stories, and Livia soon showed herself to be of the same stock as she began telling about various ancestors as well. Toxica had repaid her kindness by telling her about the adventures she'd had with Octa.

Now she lay in the bed comfortably, though it was clearly not meant for a Vileplume. It was far longer than wide, of course, to let a serpentine Serperior sleep on it comfortably, and even folded up her flower still made a bulge that the bed clearly wasn't designed to accommodate. But it could be much worse, she reflected, as the bed's softness didn't make it much of a problem. Before falling asleep, she shuddered again as she remembered Galaxia's powerful stare.

–

Since Black wasn't planning to leave until the afternoon, Toxica spent most of the morning with Livia, her new friend. Apparently breakfast was the only meal of the day not taken together, so Toxica just had a casual breakfast with Octa and his sister. They were soon cheerfully laughing about various stories the siblings had to tell about each other.

"...And seeing all those Leppas hanging off the tree's lowest branches, Octa and I somehow got the idea of a Leppa fight, throwing them at each other from a distance. So then I took an amazing, bright-scarlet Leppa, tossed it right at Octa, who was distracted by a Butterfree flying over..."

Octa winced at the memory. "It hit me right in the side of the head; it was incredibly hard. Honestly, my dear sister, you must have fired that apple out of a cannon instead of throwing it, for I can distinctly remember the impact nearly cracking my six-week-old skull."

Livia and Toxica laughed, while Octa tried to hide his own laughter. "Well, you weren't quite so verbose in your reaction back then," Livia giggled. "It was more like an indistinct scream of rage and pain as you ran at me, wielding that same Leppa like an axe."

Octa blushed with embarrassment. "Well, I was only six weeks old, and my little harpy of a sister had just given me the worst pain I'd felt yet in my brief life..."

"Anyway, he couldn't catch up to me as I ran off, still holding a few Leppas, so he soon turned around angrily and returned to the mansion, when I felt one of the apples I was holding to be very soft, and decided to throw it at him as a teasing gesture of good-will..."

Octa winced even more. "The horribly spoilt thing exploded as it hit the back of my head, showering me in liquid rotten Leppa gone softer than a Tamato."

Livia laughed. "Hey, at least that one didn't hurt you."

"Not physically, no," Octa spoke. "I still have deep emotional scarring related to spoilt Leppa dripping down my neck."

After breakfast Toxica spent some time with Octa and Livia, before there mother Claudia surprised her by taking her apart. "You are attracted to my son," she stated, surprising Toxica.

Her first thought was to deny it, but she knew there was little point. It had not been a question, but a statement, so Claudia had clearly seen it, and lying would only insult her. "Um. Well, yes... A bit, milady..."

"More than a bit. You quite obviously very smitten by him; 'tis hard to miss."

"Oh. Am I that transparent, milady?"

"Quite, yes. Has Octa ever talked to you about this matter?"

"Well... No. I've never really admitted it to him..."

"That's strange. This should be as easy to recognise to him as 'tis to me, so he should have told you to avoid damaging your feelings over the long run."

"Tell me what?" Toxica asked with a growing sense of dread.

"That it is impossible for him to reciprocate your feelings, even if he did feel the same way for you. Our family is kept pure-blooded and noble, so that our descendants can claim the same birth that we can. He shan't choose a Vileplume without a house as his mate, for he shall choose the mate his family, ergo us, choose for him."

Toxica felt crushed.

"I understand this sounds harsh and cruel to you now, but 'tis far more cruel to rob his descendants of their nobility. Octa knows this and shall never allow himself to fraternise with anyone we do not pick as his mate. It has been our way for thirty-five generations, and so it shall be for hundreds more. I am surprised he never told you this to spare your feelings..."

"B-but..." Toxica stammered. "What about your husband's brother, milady? I mean, surely the family can't have chosen Brittanicus as his mate, 'cause they can't have kids together for obvious reasons..."

"Ah, but my husband made a big exception in the case of his brother Tiberius. You see, first of all, Tiberius had done his duty to the family already, choosing the mate chosen for him and procreating with her, despite not being attracted to females. When she and my husband's father died shortly after each other, the family, after much insistence of my husband, it's new leader, decided to choose Brittanicus, whom Tiberius had always loved, as my brother's second mate as a service to him. However, Tiberius' duty to the family had already been done, and there was no risk of contaminating the bloodline from the union with Brittanicus. Aside from the most obvious reason, Brittanicus is also a Serperior of noble blood himself. I'm afraid that even if you were to wait for Octa's mate to die, you could never be chosen as his second mate, for a union with you would risk contaminating the bloodline with your lower-class and Vileplume blood. I apologise, but 'tis our way. And I also apologise for my son's behaviour, not telling you this sooner, when you would not have wasted so much emotion on him."

Toxica's eyes filled with tears. Claudia was right: the arranged mating of Octa's family might be cruel, but for him not to tell her anything about it was even worse. She had spent a whole year fawning over him, thinking she had a chance. Claudia talked on, trying to give her some solace, but Toxica didn't listen and could only think about Octa. He was a cold-hearted, haughty, overly arrogant bastard, she thought. A miserable upper-class twit, and if he'd told her about this she wouldn't have wasted so many emotions for such a long time on him.

–

AUTHOR'S NOTES: That was the very first chapter that did not contain Boreas at all. Don't worry, though, he's not gone from the story and we'll eventually return to him. But for now, I hope you enjoyed a chapter from Toxica's point of view.

I should point out I went back and divided the story into seven parts:

Chapters one to seven are Part One: Meet the Humans

Chapters eight to fourteen are Part Two: The Daycare, the Thieves, and the Scientist

Chapters fifteen to twenty-one are Part Three: Double: Evolutions and Trouble

Chapters twenty-two to twenty-eight are Part Four: City of Light

Chapters twenty-nine to thirty-five are Part Five: Where the Past Meets the Future

Chapters thirty-six to forty-two are Part Six: Blood, Magnets, and Tears

The chapters since chapter forty-three are Part Seven: If Winter Comes, can Spring be far Behind?

This division in parts has actually already been in the story since chapter fifteen, and was originally introduced to make navigation on deviantArt, where the navigation between chapters is very clunky, easier. However, since then I've very much planned the story's structure in parts and seeing them as units of story-telling, the same as chapters only bigger, and given each of them its own identity. Which makes it rather surprising that it's taken me until now to put them in the FF version of the story.

FEEDBACK: Frosty the Snow Glaceon: Awww..! It's so nice that Aqua and Boreas made up to each other! I hope it lasts for a long while! Aqua and Boreas make such a perfect couple!

A: I'm glad you're glad they made up. We'll return to them later, for now we'll keep focusing on the remaining pokémon that are with Black.

Okami Saphirqa: Q: It's getting really boring only reading fanfics... *yawn*

A: Oh dear, I hope it's not my particular fanfic that's boring you.

Q: Anyways, I do wish Aqua and Boreas are gonna be happy for a long time!

A: Well, who knows what the future holds? Maybe they'll both live to a hundred and be together all the time, maybe this is just a brief moment of reunion before an endless gorge of loneliness for both of them.

Guardian54: Q: This chapter seemed a bit out of place... too happy, too joyful, even though I love the lack of sunshine.

A: Well, I felt like it was about time for happiness and joy to come back. After the enormous darkness of part six, things are now finally looking up and I felt it was about time for joyful things to happen again. It's good to hear the rainstorm was appreciated; the idea of making them reunite in a sunlit field felt so horribly clichéd to me.

Q: Too bad about the happy ending though...

A: Ending? We're just a bit over half-way into the story; this is no ending to anything.

Q: I hope Black gets together with Skyla, she's smart, independent, tough and cute, maybe we can have something about Boreas and Aqua's Eevees nuzzling Skyla's pregnant belly curiously if they get together?

A: Hmm, to be honest a Babies Ever After ending, as Tvtropes calls it, seems like an awfully clichéd way to end a story to me. I have things in mind for chapter seventy-seven (the very last chapter), and at the moment neither cubs nor babies feature in it. Though I might change my mind, it's still more than thirty chapters away, after all.

The Bulbafinatic: Q: When I saw the word "reunion" in the chapter title, I was like, HOORAY! Boreas and Aqua will make up!

And now they're going to have little Eevee babies. But if that happens, don't put any detail into it. That would be gross.

A: It's quite interesting how many people seem convinced Aqua and Boreas are going to have cute little Eevees together now. Let's face it, neither of them has the time, nor the stable existance needed to raise cubs. They are both regularly in dangerous situations, fighting in what's more and more escalating to a war, so having kids right now would be quite irresponsible and unethical of them. Besides, you need a certain amount of maturity and order to raise children well, and Aqua and Boreas are both practically walking, talking pieces of chaos. So, in short: later, perhaps, but certainly not now. Anyway, don't worry about putting details into love-making, this fic's rated T and I would like to keep it that way, as more mature-rated fics are filtered out of people's searches by standard.

Q: what's a PM?

A: Private Message. Which, I now realise, you can't even send without an account.

Glaceon34: Q: yay, less gloomy more lovey-dovey ! It took me more than 15 minutes to read this chapter, just can't stay on my chair, after every sentences i have to stand up walk around thought to myself "what will happen next"

A: Hehe, that is amazing to hear, and really all I can ask for as a reaction when writing.

Q: and it make my day when they finally make up, until i read in the Q&A "Well, they seem to have made up (as well as made out). For now." It brought me back to the earth, it really rude my mood :(

A: Don't worry, I didn't mean they'll neccessarily break up. I only meant it as a possibility. Though it is certainly possible their reunion is only temporary. Or not, maybe they'll live happily ever after. All I can say about the ending is that it's a happy ending. For _some_ characters.

Q: Anyways, I also want to know what happen to the other supporting chapter, it has been a while since we last saw White,cheren and bianca you know.

A: You're right, I've been neglecting them horribly lately. Fortunately, part eight will contain all three of those!

Q: oh by the ways, congratulations for your 100th review, too bad i didn't claim that :P maybe i will get the honor in the 200th review or may be 500th, who know :D

A: Well, good luck with that, and good luck to me getting up to a 500th review. Considering the story is a bit more than halfway done, it seems doubtful I'll ever get that many. Then again, review traffic seems to accelerate, with more and more people commenting after each chapter (thank you all for that, by the way, I love each and every comment), so who knows?

ganonfan117: Q: This is a suprisingly well written story; you don't find a lot of those here. And you're keeping it updated consistantly, too (from what I can see). You have certainly grabbed my attention with this piece, I really want to see more of your devious scheme in action!

A: Thank you. I'll try not to disappoint you.

Q: When will Boreas ever master Blizzard?

A: Now that would be spoiling things if I told you that. ;-)

Q: Do you have a plan for him learning Mirror Coat (it is in the learnset for Gen. IV and V)? And if you do, (on a scale of one to ten) how epic will that scene be?

A: I had considered it, but at the moment I have no concrete plans for Mirror Coat. At the moment he's mainly using his nameless parrying move as a defensive move, after all. But he'll probably learn it by the end, in a fairly epic scene.

Q: Isn't Black, like, ten? Too soon, maybe?

A: Eighteen at the moment, actually. Gamefreak themselves have stated the protagonists are older than eleven (which, despite popular opinion, was only ever conformed for Red and never for any other protagonist) this time around. So I figured Black looked about seventeen, and that it was a good age anyway. A bit more than a year has passed since the adventure started.


	46. Celestial Tower Skirmish

Chapter Forty-Six: Celestial Tower Skirmish

A week after their stay with Octa's family, Toxica had still barely spoken a word to the Servine. He had not simply broken her heart; he had shattered it and jumped on the remains. If he had simply broken her heart, it would've been so much better. The sadness and rage she felt reminded her of the meltdown between Boreas and Aqua in Chargestone Cave. At least those two had made up a month later and were probably having some how's your father together right now, Toxica thought bitterly and enviously. They had had it so easy with their love-life, barely facing any difficulties at all, while she had fallen in love with some stupid dental from a family on an incredibly high Rapidash. She hadn't told Octa that his mother had told her about his family's ridiculous habits yet, figuring he'd infer it from her behaviour. Surely her anger was unmistakable? She had even tried giving him the same stare Galaxia had subjected her to, but it didn't have remotely the same kind of effect without thirty-three generations of practise backing you up. Yet, despite all her obvious signs of anger and broken heartedness, he hadn't even asked her what was wrong. This made her feel even more furious and sad, especially since she had no-one to share her troubles with. She wished Capella wasn't dead, or at least that Boreas wasn't off fooling around with Aqua.

The grasslands were now lower than they were on the southern parts of the route, allowing Toxica to see her surroundings. The White Mountains, which she knew they'd have to climb to get to Icirrus, were visible on the horizon; very small and blue with distance. A tall white tower was also visible, much closer than the mountains. The plains they were now on would soon pass into a thick conifer forest growing on the White Mountains' foothills, by the looks of it.

At some point they noticed some humans grouped together in the plain to their left. Curious, Black went to them to see what was going on and found Skyla among them, talking to the other humans.

"Skyla!" Black greeted her happily, "what are you doing here?"

Skyla turned around in surprise. "Oh, hi, Black! I guess it's a small world after all, running into you like this! I flew here, because there's a problem in Celestial Tower."

"Then it's a good thing I came by, I'll help you solve it," Black boasted.

"Hmm, I _could_ use some help. Are you afraid of ghosts?"

"Me? Afraid? I don't know the meaning of the word."

"It's a strong, unpleasant emotion caused by the perception of danger," explained Selene.

"It's a metaphor, featherhead!" snarled Lucius.

"Nah," said Selene, "it's an emotion."

As Lucius and Selene bantered, Toxica realised _she_ was afraid of ghosts. She had never met one, but the idea of a malicious gaseous lifeform which lives in the dark and loves being around graves terrified her. Not to mention the many legends about them actually being dead people or stealing your soul... Toxica looked around to see if the others felt the same way as her, but they didn't seem too worried. Lucius and Selene had it easy of course, being dark-types. But Octa wasn't worried either. Admiration for his bravery and fury at his eternal cold, emotionless state both clouded Toxica's mind.

She tried to shake her troubled emotions off to listen to Skyla's problem. Apparently Celestial Tower was the large white tower. It was a burial ground, so naturally it was home to some ghost-types, but since yesterday they were much more numerous and powerful than normal, and had attacked the people manning the tower and taken over the village around it, chasing the villagers away.

"...So the villagers called in the help of me and Brycen, as Gym Leaders of the closest cities, and here we are," Skyla finished her explanation.

"Brycen?" asked Black.

"Oh, he's just here, finding more information from the villagers. Brycen! Where are you? Brycen?"

"Here," spoke a masked man in bizarre clothes who stepped out of the crowd. He wore a sort of woolly blue toga over a tunic.

"Woah, you startled me!" said Skyla. "You're so quiet, sneaking up on me like that. Anyway, this is Black, a trainer who defeated me and offered to help us. Black, this is Brycen, Icirrus' Gym Leader."

Black greeted Brycen and extended his hand, but the older man simply nodded curtly without saying a word or shaking Black's hand. "Let's go," he simply said, and led the way to the tower.

"Was it something I said?" Toxica heard Black whisper to Skyla as they followed Brycen.

"Don't worry, he's not upset, he's always like that. He just doesn't like to use many words."

–

The village around the tower was deserted and empty, their footfalls the only sound in the vicinity. The tower itself looked scary and threatening as it loomed over the village. Usually a human settlement had at least some wild pokémon in it, attracted to the humans' food, but this village was abandoned by even them. Toxica's entire instinct told her to run away from this place, and especially from the threatening white tower. Somehow it was even scarier because it was white than if it had been black. Maybe it was because, though Toxica mainly lived by day and slept by night, her species was naturally nocturnal. But there was something else about it, she thought. Something about the unforgiving, plain white that looked hard and unpleasant.

Toxica would've fled, but the three humans and their other pokémon were walking so purposefully and undaunted, that Toxica had no choice but to follow, albeit a bit behind them and rather uncertainly. Normally she would probably have gone to Octa and talked to him for a dosis of his reassuring logic and bravery in a situation like this, but she definitely wasn't going to do that now.

"It'll be best if we attack the ghosts from two sides," Skyla whispered, "that way we have effectively surrounded them. I'll fly to the top and work my way down while you two work your way up from the normal entrance."

"Yes," said Brycen.

Black looked from Brycen to Skyla with a disappointed look on his face. "Uh... Wouldn't it be handier if I went with you, Skyla? I mean, Brycen here clearly can take care of matters on his own," he hopefully said.

"Maybe," said Skyla with a grin, "but how would you fly up there?"

Black looked at his pokémon one by one, clearly disappointed to find only Selene could fly, that she was only fifty centimetres, and her feathers looked so ruffled it was a surprise she could keep herself flying anyway, let alone carry an adult human as well. "Uh... Maybe Selene could fly me?"

Skyla smiled pityingly, climbed on her Swanna's back, and flew away to the tower's top.

Black looked disappointed. "Well, I guess it's just you and me then, huh Brycen? Brycen?"

Without saying a word, Brycen was already walking to the tower, releasing ice-types as he walked. "Oh, great," mumbled Black, "Instead of going with Skyla and having a chance of her spontaneously hugging me in fear when a ghost pops up, I get to go with mr. Icebucket."

Brycen's team consisted of Cryogonal, Vanilluxe, Glalie, Mamoswine, Beartic, and Glaceon. Toxica's eyes went wide in surprise at seeing a Glaceon, and her teammates had similar surprised reactions. Black caught up with Brycen. "Oh, you have a Glaceon as well?" he chatted. "I have one too, y'know. He's just not here right now."

Brycen said nothing.

"So... uh... that's like, nice and all..." mumbled Black.

"Yes," said Brycen.

Toxica did notice, though, that this Glaceon looked quite different from Boreas. The dark hair on her head was arranged in an odd hairstyle that resembled a crown of three diamonds or ice crystals, rather than Boreas' unruly mess of semi-long hair which mainly resembled a mop. For a moment she wondered if the difference might be because this Glaceon was a female, then she remembered Boreas had had hair like that too shortly after evolving before it had come undone. Perhaps this Glaceon was recently-evolved, or perhaps she had taken care to preserve that odd hairstyle, contrary to Boreas.

Toxica had no time to think about it, because following Brycen, they had entered the tower. While the deserted village was scary, the tower was even creepier; a terrifying atmosphere hung heavily in the greasy air. The fact that the tower was filled with gravestones made it even worse. Row after row of rectangular stones stood like giant stone teeth in the semi-darkness. A wide staircase made a half circle around the floor as it climbed to the next floor, high above. It was even more silent than the village, a terrifying deathly silent that seemed less like the absence of sound and more as if something was actively making negative sound to make it even more silent than silence itself. Toxica wanted nothing more than to run away screaming.

Brycen and his pokémon were already climbing the stairs. "Yeah, great idea now that you mention it," Black sarcastically mumbled.

Toxica took a deep breath as they reached the second floor, which was even more full of graves. This time the stairs started on the other side of the hall, meaning they'd have to fully cross it. They began walking in a deathly silence.

"You know," she heard Lucius' snide, Brooklyn-accented voice whisper, "apparently a Chandelure's flames burn up the soul, leaving the body behind as a soulless zombie..."

Toxica's eyes went wide with fear, and she felt tears stinging behind them. "Sh-shut up, that's not true!"

Lucius shrugged. "Hey, I'm just repeating something I heard, I don't know if it's true. And y'know, a Banette is a doll left behind and possessed by evil spirits, imbuing it with an insatiable wish to kill anything alive. Apparently. A Ghastly can spread itself invisibly through an entire building, get into your lungs, and then suffocate you at any time it likes. A Gengar is a dead Clefable, come back to this world to steal people's souls. A Yamask used to be human, and its mask is a cast of its face... When it gets really wistful, it'll look at it with a great sadness... And a great desire to do the same to others..."

Toxica couldn't hold back her tears of fear any more and began crying, though she knew that was exactly the effect Lucius was hoping for. "Stop it... Please..."

Lucius' grin only widened. "A Spiritomb was made from fusing 108 spirits together, and it's looking for a 109th to add to the collection. A Dusknoir-"

"Did you perchance not hear the lady?" Octa asked Lucius in stern tones. "Cease your efforts to frighten her at once, 'tis not a very comradely thing to do, is it?"

"Shut up, Octa," Toxica barked, grateful for his help against Lucius but unwilling to admit it, "I don't need your help!"

"Oh dear," said Octa with a sarcastic bow, "I _do_ apologise for springing to your aid when you were about to burst into tears."

"I don't need you, Octa!" Toxica hissed furiously, "What would I need you for? You're nothing but an arrogant git with an insane family!"

"What is your problem?" Octa hissed. "You have acted hostile and displeased all week! Is there any reason behind this uncivilised, hostile behaviour towards me, or do you merely enjoy acting like this?"

"You know perfectly well what's wrong!"

"I do not! I am not telepathic, so how could I know the reason behind your hostile, intolerant behaviour?"

"Fine! Let me spell it out to you! You know who else is hostile and intolerant? Your family!"

"Oh, what an absolutely brilliant comeback that is. Truly, Oscar Wilde would feel quite insignificant next to your wits."

"It's not a comeback, you git! Your family prohibits you from foolin' around with anyone they don't choose! An' that means anyone who's not a Snivy an' anyone who's not of "noble blood", because they think it'll make 'em less pure, an' that's the most insane idea ever!"

"Oh." Octa looked down. "They... told you about that, then..."

"Yeah, your Mum did!"

"I... I can quite see how it would make you quite upset..."

"Quite upset? You've been hiding that from me for a year, though you apparently knew I fancied you!"

"I-"

"You made me waste so much feelings on you! If you had just told me when you first realised I fancied you, I'd have got pretty angry at such a stupid rule, but then I'd have moved on! Now I've been pinin' for you for ages!"

"But-"

"No buts, I-" Suddenly Toxica realised she and Octa were alone on the floor. Except they weren't, as lots and lots of little flying purple candles with faces on them were surrounding them, and disembodied glowing eyes were behind them, staring maliciously. "Oh, bugger."

–

Toxica woke up in a dark, rectangular hole. She started up, a terrible weakness inhibiting her every move. "Oh... What in the name of Darkrai's dandruff happened?"

Then she remembered the ghosts... And nothing after that. She looked around the pit she was in and saw a rectangular slab of stone stand at the head of it. "Oh no... No, please..." she gasped with dry throat, realising she was lying in a grave.

BUT YES, spoke a voice like slabs of lead falling onto the floor.

Toxica turned around with a shock and saw a robed skeleton. A single red light, like an eye, flashed inside the skull, alternating between the two eyesockets. "No... No... You-you're-"

YES, it spoke in a voice like an epitaph being hacked into a gravestone. I AM DEATH. THE GRIM REAPER. I HAVE COME TO TAKE YOU.

"Y-you can't!" Toxica squealed in terror. Her heart pounded loudly in her ears. "Yes, you really can't! My heart still beats! I'm alive!"

YOU WON'T BE FOR MUCH LONGER.

"Y-you won't kill me!"

INDEED. I WILL MERELY TAKE YOU TO THE OTHER SIDE. BUT THEY _WILL_ KILL YOU.

A Chandelure, a Jellicent, a Cofagrigus, a Drifblim, and a Froslass floated over the grave Toxica was lying in, and a big circle of twenty-five Litwicks floated around them in a circle. Death grinned at the new arrivals. All spooky eyes were aimed at Toxica.

"Ah... An untarnished soul..." Chandelure spoke. "She will burn well..."

"Burn her!" the Litwicks sang, their voices perfectly synchronous and very high-pitched, like the highest tones on a small flute. "Incinerate her soul! Leave her body an empty, mindless shell!" they chanted.

The legends Lucius had recounted echoed through Toxica's mind. She was so drowned in terror that she couldn't even scream.

"No..." said the Jellicent, its pink mass floating above Toxica like a macrocephalic monstrosity. "Don't waste her soul by by burning it... I want to eat and digest it until nothing remains..."

"Eat her! Devour her soul!" the Litwicks chanted, flying in the circle faster and faster.

"_I will take care of her..." _said the Cofagrigus, with a voice like slime dripping out of a rotting coffin in a swamp, "_...I will turn her into a mummy, the remains of her soul forever imprisoned in a rotting body, hungry for the flesh of the living..."_

"A mummy!" the Litwicks chanted, "One of the walking dead forever, so shall her fate be!"

"No..." spoke the Drifblim, "give her to me and her soul will forever burn inside me, helping me float..."

"She will be fuel for an eternity!" the Litwicks chanted in their ultra-high voices, "Her soul helping Drifblim fight gravity!"

A long blade of ice appeared in Froslass' hands. "But first... Let me have a little fun with her... Let me cut a few petals, fingers and toes off... Or maybe her eyelids? Maybe her lips? So many possibilities for fun..."

"Pain her! Cut her!" The Litwicks chanted, floating in circles so fast their flames were beginning to look like a single blue circle of light. "Make her beg for her death before the end! Make her scream! Make her suffer! HAAAAAAAA!" They chanted a single, continuous note.

Toxica had been afraid before, but now her entire being was utter terror. To say she was afraid would be like saying there was water in the ocean. She couldn't move a muscle, could barely breathe or think, couldn't scream at all.

Death grinned, for as far as its skull didn't always grin. I WAS MISTAKEN. YOUR SOUL WILL EITHER BE BURNED, EATEN, USED AS FUEL, OR FOREVER IMPRISONED IN A ROTTING SHELL OF A BODY. IT SEEMS MY SERVICES ARE NOT NEEDED EITHER WAY.

"Why do you talk in that funny voice?" a raspy voice above Toxica's head asked. All the ghosts turned at it in surprise, including the Litwicks, who got confused in their circle-flying and chanting because of it and collided with each other.

All this made Toxica slightly less afraid to the point were she could actually scream, so she did. She screamed in utter morbid fear, channelling all her fright into her lungs until Death swooped down and put its hand over her mouth.

I AM DEATH, IMPERTINENT MORTAL. THAT IS WHY I TALK LIKE THIS.

"Is Death a Duskull?" the other voice curiously asked.

"I'm no-" Death coughed, I AM NOT A DUSKULL, I AM AN ANTHROPOMORPHIC PERSONIFICATION.

"You're not very anthropomorphic if you're a Duskull. That's Duskullmorphic."

"Sh-shut up!"

That didn't sound much like Death, and Toxica now recognised it was indeed a Duskull, not Death. She bit its hand, which was still covering her mouth, and resumed screaming as it retracted it with a yelp of pain. She looked at the gravestone standing at the head of her grave, and saw the unmistakable, ruffled silhouette of Selene sit on it.

"Why is she screaming like that?" Selene wondered. Toxica was still too terrified to explain it herself.

"Uh..." stammered the Chandelure, "we... uh... We were going to burn her soul! And your too now, foolish mortal!"

"Are you?" Selene asked happily. "Did you hear that, Toxica? This must be our lucky day!"

"Yes!" The Litwicks chanted uncertainly and much less synchronised than they did at first. "We will burn... What?"

"She likes it?" a Litwick piped.

"What the..." another mumbled.

Soon the Litwicks were all chatting through one another.

"_S-silence_!" roared the Cofagrigus. "_I will turn you both into mummies, dooming you to an eternity of pain in a slowly rotting body as you hunger for the flesh of the living!"_

"Wow," Selene said, completely unperturbed. "I've always wondered what that was like, this is amazing! Hey, don't worry, Tox, they're just going to turn us into mummies."

The Litwicks were now all chattering through each other as the bigger ghosts looked at Selene in utter puzzlement. "She's weird!" "What is she playing at?" "She's just pretending!" "Weirdo!" "G-get her away..." "She scares me!"

"B-but..." the Jellicent stammered unsurely. "I... I will eat your soul. You know? Your very deepest "I" thing? I mean, you will suffer greatly as you're digested by me? And your body will remain as a thoughtless zombie. D-doesn't that scare you? A little?"

"A zombie? Cool! Think of all the people we'll scare, Tox! And we get to have our souls eaten, aren't we lucky?"

Toxica noticed she had stopped screaming to stare in astonishment at Selene, like the ghosts. In fact, the Litwicks were now routing, terrified by Selene, while the other ghosts seemed to be shrinking back slowly, muttering to each other: "S-she can't be serious."

"N-no-one thinks things like that..."

"Let's just look into her mind using our telepathy, then..."

"_I-I'd really rather not..._"

"I'll give it a try- OH GIRATINA! I-I'm out of here!" the Chandelure floated away, its flames burning green with terror, as the remaining ghosts seemed unsure of what to do.

"What's all this noise?" a new, low-pitched voice asked.

"G-Golurk..." Jellicent stammered. "W-we were just playing a prank... But that Murkrow, s-she's utterly terrifying!"

"A prank?" Golurk asked. It now stood next to the grave and looked down at Toxica. "She is not laughing. Did you go too far again? You know mistress won't like that."

"_M-maybe a little... But that Murkrow..."_

"A little?" Golurk yelled angrily, "look at the poor thing, she's terrified! Go away, now, and tell mistress we're leaving. I'll have a solid word with her and you later."

The ghosts fled, leaving Selene disappointed. "Aww, but they seemed so much fun..." she pouted.

Golurk extended a mechanic hand into the grave to help the still-trembling and crying Toxica up. "I'm really sorry for them. They're good deep at heart, but..." it paused, giving the impression it would have sighed had it had lungs. "They have a bad sense of humour. I'm afraid it's rather common in ghosts."

Toxica grabbed the arm and let herself be helped up, but she was still trembling all over and crying. "Th-they were going to... G-going to do horrible things to me... They were going to b-burn my soul, and use it as fuel, a-and stab me..."

"They would never have really done those things. In fact, most of the things they threatened you with are impossible, just bits of the many stories told about ghost-types. Sadly our cruel sense of humour leaves people telling these kinds of stories about us, and to be honest I can't blame them..."

Toxica was taking deep breaths now to calm herself down. "O-Octa? Where is he? H-he's a Servine."

"He's probably back with your trainers now. You were all dispersed in their attack, but the others have managed to regroup on the second floor. I'm afraid the others specifically attacked you because you must've seemed the most susceptible to their attacks and- hey, that is interesting..."

"What is?" Toxica asked.

"Well, let me explain it: I have lived for ten thousand years. I was built by a civilisation so ancient modern archaeology doesn't even know their name. When you have lived for ten thousand years, you know how time passes... You get a certain knack for telling what's going to happen next. And therefore, you can see a bit of the future... Mainly very big events, details are very hard... I had thought this might be coming before... But now that I've met you two, I'm certain..."

"What?" Toxica curiously asked despite her fear.

"A battle. The greatest battle of your time is coming soon, probably within a year from now. Two large armies will decide the fate of Unova, and possibly the world, on that day... But whoever wins, will do so at the cost of a great many lives. I can only hope it'll be worth it. And you," it pointed at Toxica, "will play a vital part in this battle."

"But... When? Where? What will happen? What will I do?"

"I don't know. The future is always in motion. Everything that happens changes it, so I can't be certain about any details... But the battle will happen, almost certainly. And now I must leave you alone. Your companions are a floor down, searching for you. I have to return to my own companions. We will leave this place in peace now, and I will have a strong word with them about how far is too far." It walked off, to the stairs leading up. Toxica was too scared to follow her, and walked to the stairs down.

"Aww," said Selene as she flew over Toxica's head, "It's a shame they're going; they were so much fun..."

"Y-yeah..." said Toxica. "Selene, you were so brave back there!"

"Was I?" Selene asked with a baffled expression on her face.

"Yeah, you were all fearless and stuff!"

"Well, yeah. I mean, what was there to fear?" Selene asked as if that was incredibly obvious.

"W-well... Getting our souls burned, or getting turned into an undead monstrosity and things like that."

"Right..." Selene said as if expecting her to continue.

"So... You know, those were bad things."

"Oh. Why?"

Toxica searched for words, finding none. "Be-because... Okay, I'm not going to talk to you about this any more, 'cause you're beginning to scare me as much as you scared them. I'll just say: thank you, and move on."

–

AUTHOR'S NOTES: Another chapter focusing on Toxica, as you have surely realised by now. We'll be returning to Boreas next chapter though, so don't worry that he's gone from the story.

Today it's 1 January 2012, and that means it's a year ago I became a writer. I had written before that, of course, but a year ago, when I felt like writing another chapter to my fic Diddy's Kong Quest, which had been running extremely slowly for almost three years, that urge to write didn't just disappear after a single chapter; it remained and after writing chapter seven I quickly wrote chapter eight; then nine; then I actually finished the story with chapter ten, exactly three years after starting it. So in short, I started enjoying writing then, and a year later I have one completed fic, a sequel to it in progress, and 46 chapters of The Surprising Adventures, as well as about a dozen one-shots which aren't on FF, to show for it.

FEEDBACK: Guardian54: Q: I know babies ever after is a hideously cliche ending, second only to the actual birth of a new child as the epilogue. But at least it would be less boring than what JK Rowling did, honestly, why didn't say 19 years, 3 months, and (something like 25) days later?

A: Ugh, that epilogue was truly awful. What a bad way to end such a great series of books. But, the fact that a better writer than me has made worse mistakes is no reason for me to go making a mistake.

Q: Anyways, I am talking distant future here, and by that I mean five or more years after the annihilation of Team Plasma, which I think will take until Black is 19 at least (the adventure has quite a ways to go...), so he should be around 25 at the point where he is even considering settling.

Not sure how Eeveelutions age, but I believe that 6 or 7 is middle aged for them, if evolution can be considered puberty and Boreas, evolving at 1, had his very early. So they'd probably be on their second clutch (Pokemon lay eggs, hence "clutch") of two or three eggs when Skyla fianlly decides it may be time to start a family. Still hope they make it.

A: Well, since the Eevees seem based on foxes, I roughly based their lifecycle on a fox's. That means they reach procreative age and are physically more or less an adult at about 7 months old (which is coincidentally enough the age when Boreas evolved; and yes, that is indeed a coincidence), though I had mental adulthood take a whole year, much like how humans are, biologically speaking, adults at twelve or thirteen but take until eighteen to really be considered adults. If I kept basing their lifecycle on a fox's, 6 or 7 would be old age (they die at 8-14 in captivity), but I like them far too much to give them such short lives, and will probably, if the issue ever arises, have their old age be at least 20 or 30. So long story short: yeah, 6 or 7 would probably be like middle-age for them. At any rate, it is highly unlikely any offspring of Boreas and Aqua will appear in this story.

Q: And no I didn't mean last chap was anything close to an ending, but I think it concluded on too happy a note, and I think you should have had Diego make Aqua suffer more before she ditches Plasma for good and makes up with Boreas. More Angst and Hurt/Comfort, right?

A: Oh, believe me, Diego is certainly not done yet. And who knows if Aqua has ditched Plasma for good? She, like Boreas, has not made any decisions on that point yet, only that they would leave right there and then. You'll see where thigs go from there.

RuningWitSizorz: Q: First off, merry late christmas. Secondly, I'd like to know that I secretely like Toxic... I didn't even know till this chapter! She's the most developed side character in the story, and now I feel bad for not taking great notice of her till now

A: Heh, it's more my fault than yours. Because as much as you claim she is developed, I didn't give her much character-stuff until recently. It had several causes, one of which was that before chapter 38, almost all the character stuff that didn't go to the three most important characters went to Capella, because I knew I had only a limited amount of time to develop her character and make people really care that she'd died. But yeah, I have been developing her much more as of late.

Q: I loved how this chapter strayed away from our fav Glaceon POV. You should do some more of these kind of chapters. Like one of Octa's POV, (Better get a dictionary close and handy!) And another chapter that has Bore in it... just someone else's POV though, so we can see how the others see him alittle better.

A: It's good to know the different point of view is so well-liked. I am indeed considering doing more things like this, though I have no concrete plans for point of view shifts to characters other than Toxica and Diego.

Q: i'm enjoying the story very much, particularly because snivy is one of my favorite pokemon. i just hope there isn't any death or heartbreak in the ending(exept maybe for lucius because he's a jerk) just dont kill anyone...please...

A: I can't say anything about the ending, other than what I've already said: It will be a happy ending. For _some _characters.

The Bulbafinatic: Q: yes, if the two Eeveelutions had little Eevee babies in the middle of all of this, then things wouldn't be good. It'd be like in the Warriors series (ugh; another Warriors reference) when Sorreltail has her kits - WHILE BADGERS ARE ATTACKING HER CLAN. That would be bad.

(While Reshiram and Zekrom are battling) Aqua: Eeeek! Boreas...

Boreas: WHAT? RIGHT NOW? #$!^#^#%!

A: Yes, that would indeed be a very bad time. The fact that pokémon lay eggs makes it a bit less unfortunate, but it would still be no time for cubs to be born/raised.

Rattlez: Q: I think it's funny how Octa said, " My friends and Lucius" that made me lol.

A: Heh, good. Making people laugh is why I put little jokes like that in.

Q: No one but Selene considers him a friend, correct?

A: Well, probably not literally. Boreas likes him a lot better than Octa does, though. But Selene probably regards him as a friend indeed.

Q: Would Lucius' personality change?

A: When?


	47. Never Odd or Even

Chapter Forty-Seven: Never Odd or Even

Boreas ran, almost skipped, through the tall grass, hearing his pursuer follow him. "I'm going to get you!" she called after him.

"Not with that lovely tail slowing you down, love!" He called back, laughing. "In water it might make you faster, but here on land it only slows you down!"

"Ha, you underestimate my speed!" Aqua shouted through ragged breaths.

"Then catch me if you can! You'll never get me!"

"Well, even if I don't catch up to you, at least you look real good from this angle," She flirted as she kept pursuing him.

He blushed and suddenly - and not entirely unintentionally - he tripped over a plant. He fell to the ground and rolled onto his back, letting Aqua jump on top of him and pin him down. "Well, well, looks like I caught my delicious prey after all..." Boreas felt his heart pound loudly in his chest as she lowered her head to kiss him, but then she suddenly turned away, put her front paws on his stomach, and starting tickling.

"Ahahaha-" Boreas laughed as his limbs began flailing uncontrollably. "Don't, don't- hahaha- stohohop it!"

"Don't stop it?" Aqua said with a wide grin. "Okay, then I won't. I'll keep tickling forever."

"Hahaha- Nononono-" Boreas laughed as he tried to stop her, but found it impossible with his limbs flailing with laughter. "That's not- ahahaha- What I meaheant! C'mon- hahaha- stop it!"

"Never! I'll keep tickling and tickling for ever and ever. Unless you _make me _stop."

Boreas tried to grab a hold of her paws to make her stop, but he couldn't. "I cahahahan't! Hahaha- you're pinning mehihi down! I surrender- hahaha!"

But Aqua kept tickling, with a mean grin on her face. "If you surrendered, that means I'm the victor, and to the victor go the spoils of war. So... What do I get for winning?"

"Hahaha," Boreas still laughed hysterically, his belly beginning to hurt from all this. "Whahahat about a kihihiss?"

"Hmm..." Aqua said as she lay down on top of him, stopped tickling for a moment, and brought her radiant grin to Boreas' mouth. "We can start with that. But since you surrendered unconditionally," she spoke, looking into Boreas' eyes with a look that made his toes curl, his blood boil, and his mouth water, "you're mine to do with as I please afterwards..."

They kissed full of fire, their nervous systems overflowing with delight. When their lips parted, Boreas tried to move, but found that Aqua was still pinning him down with her slightly greater strength, weight, and size. She looked down on him with a beautiful grin. "Ah, ah, ah," she said as if berating a naughty cub as Boreas felt her paws slide back to his stomach.

Fortunately, he had an idea that would gain him the upper hand. He approached her face once again, letting their lips touch softly; but this time he tried very hard not to lose himself in the kiss, instead he suddenly grabbed Aqua and rolled over, using her momentary distraction with the kiss to gain the upper hand.

"Ha ha!" Boreas laughed triumphantly at Aqua's surprised face. "Now who's the victor, my dear?"

"Neither of us. Because I have not surrendered. And I never will. You can do with me what you wish, but you'll never get me to surrender..."

"Oh, really? Let's try that, hmm?" Boreas looked at her deviously as he put his front paws on Aqua's soft, blue tummy and began tickling her, causing her to break out in high-pitched nervous giggles. "What about now?" Boreas asked with a grin.

"Hihihi- Never!" Boreas kept tickling as she laughed, but suddenly he jerked back with a nervous yelp as Aqua poked his stomach. She immediately threw him off her and pounced him. But he swiftly reacted and grabbed her as she landed, trying to subdue her, but she wildly wrestled with him as they both laughed and enjoyed the warm touch of each other's body pressed against them. Boreas even managed to steal a quick kiss as they rolled over each other. Wrestling and hugging at the same time, they suddenly rolled onto a small slope; gravity increased their momentum and made them keep rolling and rolling. Boreas held Aqua in a tight embrace as the world spun around them. She brought her blue mouth to his neck and began covering it with passionate kisses, so Boreas felt even dizzier than from just the spinning. He repaid her in kind by kissing her forehead and her fins, softly stroking her frilled collar. When they stopped rolling at last, they lay next to each other in a dizzy embrace.

He stared into Aqua's face, mesmerised by her while the world still seemed to spin around them. Her soft blue lips and eyes like the sea at night seemed particularly enchanting now and a warm, tender feeling spread from his heart like a bottle of warm syrup being emptied over him. He burst with adoration for his sweet, gorgeous Aqua, suddenly realising how much he'd come to love her. He would give anything for her, even his own life, he realised, and he'd do it happily too. Unimaginable though it was, it felt even stronger than being in love on its own did. Reminded of Octa's stellar metaphor, he now realised being in love was more like the bright flashes at the beginning of a star's life than the star's endless life-sustaining flames itself. This feeling, however, was much more like a star. A bright, blazing warm star that shone for Aqua in his heart and illuminated his entire being.

"I love you," Boreas whispered softly. Aqua's radiant smile displayed a combination of surprise, love, and happiness as he kissed her softly. "I... Just realised that..." he whispered as they remained close enough to have barely a centimetre between their faces. "I have known I was... in love with you since the first day we met... but now I really love you. Y-you're... the most lovely, amazing creature in the universe... Every second with you... Is a delight. There is no-one I'd rather be with than you... My beautiful Aqua..."

Aqua softly dried the tears of joy that had formed in Boreas' eyes with her paw. "Yes... I love you too, Boreas..." Though he had perhaps expected this answer, to hear those four amazing words from her enticing blue mouth filled him with extreme happiness. "I have said some stupid things to you in the past, but now everything is clearer to me than it ever has been... I love you, and you're the perfect mate for me..."

They hugged tenderly, happy to simply be together. All the horribly hard times that had befallen Boreas lately were completely forgotten now as Aqua softly stroked his face and back, while he did the same to her, caressing her every square centimetre of soft, blue-furred flesh.

"Oh dear, your muscles are all knotted up..." whispered Aqua.

"Are they?" Boreas asked in surprise. That did not sound like a good thing.

"Yeah, they are. Must've been all the worry I caused you lately. It seems only fair I should also solve it, then..." she left the loving embrace, to Boreas' disappointment, told him to lie down on his stomach. Then she sat down on his lower back, softly massaging his muscles with her front paws. Boreas hummed in delectation at her tender paws caressing him like that and blushed a slight purple.

"Mmm..." he purred, "that feels... ahh... so amazing... Your paws are... so tender... Hmm... A bit higher..."

She gently rubbed his shoulders and neck, relieving tension Boreas hadn't even realised was there, before she gently moved down his back, occasionally centring around a single spot for a long time, as Boreas just happily lay on his stomach, blushing and smiling inanely. After his back, she softly kneaded his tail over its entire length, bringing even greater relief to Boreas. Then she lay down on his back, embracing him.

"I... I can barely believe how lucky I am to be with a bloke like you..." Aqua whispered in his ear, her voice dripping with adoration.

Boreas turned around under her and softly kissed her beautiful, blushing face. "How lucky _we _are to be with each other," he bettered as he rubbed her back, noticing the muscles there seemed hard and cramped, quite like what he would describe as "knotted up". "It feels like you could use a massage as well. Lie down and let me help you..."

With another touch of their lips, Aqua lay down. Boreas sat down onto her back, careful not to hurt her delicate form by sitting down too roughly. He put his paws on her shoulders with a deep blush and began kneading her soft flesh gently, feeling every muscle of that beautiful creature he so adored. Aqua made happy sounds of delight as she blushed deeply as well. Tracing her muscles and her foxy shape with desire, Boreas felt as if it was getting warmer by the minute, though the Sun was setting.

"Hmm?" Aqua asked playfully, "what's that I feel, my love?"

"N-nothing," Boreas said, ashamed.

Aqua turned around under him and looked down. "I'd hardly call _that_ nothing..." she said with admiration.

"S-sorry..."

"Don't apologise, and don't be ashamed, my love... I want this as much as you... Kiss me."

He did so, and she kissed back with such amazingly fiery passion that Boreas stopped inhibiting his desires and let all his passion for Aqua pour into the kiss as he rubbed her with more and more love.

–

Boreas panted in exhaustion and supreme gratification as he lay next to Aqua, both heavily flushed and sweating after their long, intense exertion that had ended a few minutes earlier. Boreas was more overwhelmed with love than he'd ever been. Everything about her was so intensely, overwhelmingly attractive. Everything from her scent, to the way her hips moved when she walked, to her eyes attracted him, but that was not what he really loved. He really loved what was inside her head, her loving, clever, flirtatious mind. He would happily have done the same with her if she'd been hideous.

Aqua snuggled up to him and he felt her rapid heartbeat under her warm, flushed skin. "You... were amazing... my lovely Boreas..." she panted.

"Thank you," Boreas said as he snuggled up to her as well. "That was... The most brilliant thing I've ever felt... It was..." he futilely searched for words.

Aqua put a finger on his lips and brushed his hair out of his face very affectionately. "Shhh, my love, don't bother. I know. And I know there are no words that suffice it... You were such an amazing, gentle lover..."

They lay in each others' embrace, catching their breath back as they looked up to the night sky without much thought for quite a while. But then Aqua began kissing Boreas once again in rapid succession as she snuggled even closer to him.

"Mmm, you are -mmm- truly insatiable, aren't you?" Boreas asked between kisses.

"Oh," Aqua said disappointedly as she stopped. "Sorry. I... figured you'd feel up for it again..."

"I wonder:" Boreas asked with a sly smile, "do you ask for a fourth plate at dinner too?"

"S-sorry..." Aqua blushed even deeper than she already was.

"Don't worry," Boreas laughed as he held her closer and began kissing her again, "I'm insatiable as well!"

–

Boreas awoke softly in Aqua's arms. He opened his eyes and saw her pretty face, sleeping with a happy smile on it. He blushed and smiled as he remembered how they had fallen asleep the night before, more exhausted than they'd ever been before. He stroked her pointy ears softly and tenderly as he remembered the wild, passionate flurry. Aqua chuckled in her sleep, snuggled up even closer to him, and softly muttering his name, making Boreas' heart pound loudly and his mind fill with adoration for her. He couldn't help himself and kissed her soft blue lips tenderly.

"Mmm... Boreas?" Aqua muttered as she opened her black eyes slowly.

"The very same," Boreas smiled as he continued lightly kissing her.

"Lucky me," giggled Aqua between kisses, "to be – mmm – awoken by the kisses of my beautiful Boreas... Mmm, last night was... fun."

"You must be the luckiest Vaporeon in the world," Boreas laughed, "and I think to describe last night as "fun" is quite the understatement."

"Boreas," said Aqua in a mock-insulted voice as she jokingly pushed him away from her, "I'll have you know I don't like arrogant males at all."

"Then why have you," said Boreas as he returned to kissing her, "fallen so hopelessly in love with me?"

"I have not," Aqua giggled as she kept playfully resisting, whilst at the same time reciprocating Boreas' kisses, "fallen in -mmm- love with you..."

"Oh, I think you -mmm- have, my dearest."

"Really? Do -mmm- you have any proof -mmm- of that?"

"Well, mmm- I think I remember you -mmm- uttering the words "I love you, Boreas" on -mmm- nine different occasions yesterday. It's -mmm- possible I misheard, of course, but since you -mmm- almost screamed those words on five of those occasions it would be quite hard..."

"Lies," Aqua whispered as she kept kissing him, "all lies... You're a -mmm- liar... My beautiful, clever -mmm- liar..."

They smooched for a while more, then just rested in each other's arms. "I love you, Aqua," Boreas sighed in joy, "and I want to spend every day of my life with you... Not to mention every night..."

"Then what's stopping us?" Aqua whispered in his ear. "My offer of travelling wherever we want together still stands, my love."

Boreas thought about it. Then he answered. "Last time you gave me that offer, I declined it. I have regretted that choice ever since. First came the lovesickness of being separated from you... Then Capella died and I blamed myself in so many different ways, and thought she wouldn't have died if I'd taken your offer... Then I learnt you were with N, and I absolutely hated myself for not taking your offer, as you'd never have joined him if I had... But, despite all that, it is the right choice. I'm sorry, my love, but Team Plasma has to be stopped. I can't leave my friends to fight them alone. I want to take your offer more than anything in the world, but I can't."

The silence as Boreas feared Aqua would be angry or insulted was dreadful. But then she said: "I understand, my love."

"You do?"

"Yes. I understand this is important to you. Black saved your life, just as humans have always threatened mine. They have always helped you, just like they have always endangered me. If our lives had been the other way around, I would probably fight for the bond between humans and pokémon as well."

"I'm glad you understand."

"Of course I do; I love you and I will support you to the end. But, our lives are not the other way around. And if our lives had been the other way around, you would see the need to separate humans and pokémon, just as I do. I will go back to my friends, and I will help N bring his new world about. I hope you can forgive me, my love."

Boreas felt a rogue spark of anger, but his love for Aqua quenched it quickly. He couldn't hate her or be angry at her, no matter what. "I have forgiven you a few days ago. I can accept you returning to N, much though I think it's the wrong choice. You support Team Plasma, I oppose them, and I'm not letting this come between us again."

"Neither am I. I will not fight you again, no matter what. And when this is all over, we can be together... For as long as we want."

Boreas sighed. "I look forward to that so much... I... I do want to ask you one thing, since you're going back to N: Please be careful of Diego."

"Diego is my friend, Boreas," Aqua stated, suddenly with quite a lot less love in her voice.

"Well, you see... I caught him looking at you. The way he looked at you terrified me. He looked almost hungry... Please, be careful of him. I... Don't want him to hurt you..."

"He may have been quite cruel to you," Aqua said with a clear spark of anger in her voice, "but that does not make him a rapist."

"I-I wasn't suggesting that."

"You were, though."

"Alright, maybe a bit... But there's not just that... He also knows now how much I love you... He knows he could hit me hardest by hurting you... I don't want him to do that."

"He is my friend, Boreas, he'd never do anything to me."

"Please, you don't know him like I do."

"Well, obviously. I mean, I only spent six weeks around him as a friend, while you spent half-an-hour with him while you were trying to beat each other to pieces. Obviously, I am not nearly as qualified as you to determine his character."

"Okay, so maybe you know him better. But still... He's very cruel, and he could hurt me so much by hurting you... Please promise me you'll be careful about him..."

"Fine, does that make you happy? Now let's stop talking about Diego when there's so many better topics to talk about."

"Alright, thank you," said Boreas, though he knew Aqua was not taking Diego nearly seriously enough, no matter what he said. "Since we have made our plans, I guess we'd better get going if we want to catch up with our friends..."

Aqua giggled. "Don't worry, my love. The destinations of both N and Black are Icirrus City. I know it's high up in the White Mountains; and we can't even see them yet, though these are flat plains."

"So?" Boreas asked.

"My dear, have you ever seen a mountain in real life?"

"Come to think of it, I don't think so. I've seen hills, though. Why?"

"Well, my family's home was close to the eastern end of the White Mountains, so I _have_ seen them, and I'll tell you the single most important feature of every mountain: they're gigantic. It is unbelievable how immense even a small mountain is, and the White Mountains go up to almost six kilometres."

"I know."

"Well, you know, but you probably don't really realise it. When you first see the mountains, you'll be utterly surprised at how gigantic they are; larger than anything you had previously imagined possible. You can see mountains from enormous distances because of their size; that's how I know Icirrus must be really far away: we can't even see the White Mountains yet. It must be weeks away, maybe even more than a month if we're lucky. So you see, there's no need for us to rush; if we just walk together in the right direction each day, we will eventually catch up, and we have weeks to do so."

"Hehe, I _really_ like the sound of that... Spending weeks together with you... But catching up will be difficult; I have the feeling we'll be wasting a lot of time on the way there..."

"Well, that depends on what you call wasted time," Aqua winked.

"Of course," said Boreas. He kissed Aqua, deciding the best time to waste time was now.

–

Boreas sighed as he saw the familiar tent between the trees. "I'm sorry to say it, but that's definitely Black's tent..."

Aqua chuckled. "Look on the bright side: you'll get to be with your friends again."

"Yeah," sighed Boreas, "but I won't get to be with you any more, my love."

Aqua rested her head on his shoulder and ran a paw through his hair. "These three weeks with you have been blissful. But all good things must come to an end."

Boreas stroke her ears and frilled neck. "No. All things must come to an end, both good and bad things. Especially the bad things, in fact... I already can't wait until our next meeting."

Aqua chuckled and whispered something in Boreas' ear that made him blush deeply. "Especially now... You know, I'm probably not going to sleep very well, thinking of you all the time."

Aqua laughed and kissed him. "You weren't sleeping very well anyway."

Boreas chuckled and poked her. "That's because you were keeping me up all the time, you silly, lovely girl."

They kissed each other for an incredibly long time, to say goodbye. Then Aqua walked off through the forest, quickly invisible behind trees, yet Boreas kept staring after her, resisting the urge to run after her. Finally he sighed and entered the tent.

"Wah!" Black shouted as he startled awake. "Who are you? Get the hell out of my te- Boreas?" Black hugged him as his pokémon also approached. "Boreas, I thought you had left forever!" He laughed happily. "Welcome back, you're looking great! Heh, that Vaporeon must've been taking good care of you! You know, you nearly gave me a heart attack when you suddenly entered the tent in the middle of the night!"

"Uh. Y-yeah, hi Black," Boreas stammered, startled by the warm welcome.

As soon as Black let go of him, Boreas was firmly hugged by Octa. "My dear fellow, may I say what a pleasure it is to see you once again! I have quite honestly missed your presence, my friend, and I do hope you will endeavour not to be missing from my side for quite so long again, my dear fellow."

Boreas was still overwhelmed by the warm welcome as Selene and Toxica happily welcomed him too, though he thought he spotted an uncharacteristically angry look from Toxica to Octa. "Wow, thanks. I missed you all as well; especially you, Octa."

Lucius was treating him to an unpleasant scowl, though. "Well, well, look who's back from sleeping with the enemy!"

In other circumstances this might've made Boreas angry, but the memory to the time spent with Aqua and the warm welcome he'd been given made that pretty much impossible. "Oh, there was actually not much sleeping involved... Hehe, we didn't leave much time for sleeping... In fact, I'm quite tired now..."

Lucius grimaced. "Oh, very funny, pup. But you've been sleeping with the enemy, both literally and figuratively."

"That's quite enough," said Octa.

"No, it isn't. Your girlfriend is partially responsible for Capella's death, and you dishonoured her memory with this, when you shoulda been getting revenge! If it was up to me, we'd chase you off the team right now!"

"How fortunate, then," said Octa, "that it is not up to you, for we would lose a highly valued friend and team member that way."

Lucius began bickering with Octa, and Boreas really thought he should support Octa's position, but he was indeed very tired and fell asleep almost instantaneously when he lied down.

–

AUTHOR'S NOTES: The title of this chapter doesn't really mean anything, it's just a random palindrome I found amusing. I considered "sleeping with the enemy" for a chapter title, but didn't like that title and just went with something random instead.

FEEDBACK: Guardian54: Q: Well, you're going to take this the way you'll take it, and I don't think us suggesting things is useful to you...

and I wouldn't have it any other way, carry on, fellow writer!

A: On the contrary, I always find suggestions entertaining and often useful. I have on occasion got an idea from the comments, whether directly or indirectly, so please feel free to speak your mind.

Okami Saphira: Q: Me and Frost completely forgot to review last chapter, sorry! . It doesn't really matter to you anyways, right?

A: Well, I prefer as much feedback as I can get, obviously, but if I had to choose between getting a comment less or having to eat nine raw pigs, I'd probably pick the comment. So I guess it depends on your definition of "matter".

Q: Anyways, I like the idea of telling the story in various POVs. It makes the story really interesting.

A: Excellent, I decided it was a great way to develop some characters who had seen far too little development so far. I'm glad you like it.

The Bulbafinatic: Q: Selene, the fearless Murkrow... I'm guessing she's just to naive to know that the Ghost types were trying to, supposedly, "kill her".

A: Well, she probably did realise they were trying to kill her, but her interest for their fascinating methods far outweighed any concerns for her life she might have. If they had simply threatened to cut her throat, she might've reacted differently.

Q: About writing, where do you get inspiration?

A: Anywhere.

Q: And how do you fix writer's block?

A: Not quite sure, I don't think I've ever really had it. When you have no inspiration, though, just don't push it. Do other things, and inspiration will come to you in a few days.

Q: And are you planning on being an author, or do you just do this for fun?

A: Both. I do this for fun, hence why I'd love to be an author so I could write as a job and earn money with it.

Glaceon34: Q: aw! only 35 chapters left! BUT i want MORE !

A: Actually, after this chapter, it's only thirty chapters left. Chapter seventy-seven is the final chapter, in my current planning.

Q: awsome chapter as always, you have done a great job with octa 's family, I can see their upper-class but not arrogant attitudes and i like it

A: Hmm, I'd call them quite arrogant myself, though it depends a bit on your definition of arrogance. They're not really mean and purposefully rubbing their supposed betterness in your face on every turn, it's more like they just KNOW they're better than you and see no reason to bother pointing it out, though it is in their minds quite clearly.

Q: this is one of a few fic i would like to see a happy ending ( heck i don't want it to end in the first place) but it is yours anyway so you choose how it will end, happy new year

A: Glad to hear you'd like a happy ending. I can thell you there will be a happy ending. For _some_ characters.

Q: it 's hard for me to imagine Boreas 's "mop" hair style cause the way i see it, thoer hair almost like a part of thier body, Do you have any drawings that you can show me how it like,plz

A: Of course. My latest drawing of him is: apenpaap dot deviantart dot com/art/Boreas-278029053

I also drew some of the other characters: Octa: apenpaap dot deviantart dot com/art/En-guarde-272545889

Aqua: apenpaap dot deviantart dot com/art/Aqua-being-flirty-272649177

Capella: apenpaap dot deviantart dot com/art/Capella-272660287

Diego: apenpaap dot deviantart dot com/art/Diego-s-evil-grin-272672180

Of course, I should point out that you're under no obligation to accept these drawings as how you should imagine my characters; feel free to imagine them as whatever you like, it's not as if their precise looks have a big impact on the story.

Q: what! There will be Diego's point of view ! I have mixed felling about this!

A: Well, we'll see what you think in chapter fifty. Which, by the way, is going to be quite a big and important chapter, from what I've planned now, with several very major events happening that will very majorly affect the final parts of the story.

Sonosublime: Q: Damn is all I can say. I'm very sad to see Capella meet an untimely and very gruesome end. She was a great character. RIP.

A: I'm always very glad to hear Capella's death really affected someone. It would've been awful if her death had been met with apathy.

Q: And Exeggcutor's mental conversation with Boreas was... creepy to say the least.

A: Psychic types are possibly the scariest type, when you think about them and what they could do.

UNKNOWN: Q: Mm, okay! One heartbreak, then amendments, then get together. So now it must be the same with Toxica? My guesses are that: A. Toxica gets over it and stays single, or B. Octa ignores his traditions and they get together (unlikely)? or C. Toxica is really of noble birth! Eh, I guess I'll find out anyway.

A: I can think of quite a number of other ones too: D. Toxica dies. E. Octa dies. F. Both die. G. Octa really loves Boreas! H. Octa just doesn't like Toxica. I. Octa's family absolves him from his responsibilities. J. Octa's family dies and he decides not to continue the tradition. K. Octa's family changes the tradition. L. Toxica falls in love with someone else. M. Etc. I could probably finish the alphabet if I wanted to.

Q: I just watched Sherlock Holmes 2 yesterday, and I don't know why, but I thought of Octa when Sherlock said 'my dear fellow', in that accent. Then throughout the movie I kept imagining a Snivy face on Sherlock. Everyone gave me weird looks when I laughed randomly in the theater! Sorry for ranting but they matched so well I had to point it out. Both are witty, cunning, skillful, and have cool accents (presumably on Octa). Maybe Boreas can be Watson, his sidekick! Ahem, sorry about this.

A: Heh, that's very funny, because I had just seen the previous Sherlock Holmes film (with the same actors) when I first designed Octa and Boreas' characters, and it did indeed heavily influence me. But, not with Octa as Holmes, but Boreas, while Octa is more influenced by Watson. Octa does indeed have cool, upper-class English accent, as you rightly guessed (I always imagine Boreas with a very slight hint of a Welsh accent, though). Boreas and Holmes are both very intelligent, and also very rash and chaotic. And Octa and Watson, being more even-minded, patient, and orderly, often end up having to help their friend out, often out of a mess they caused themselves. Both are also intelligent and cunning, though probably not to as great an extent as their friend. Even their continuous arguing despite being close friends and Boreas' jealousy of Toxica were influenced quite a lot by Sherlock Holmes. So yes, your idea was quite right, though with the characters switched around.


	48. The White Mountains

Chapter Forty-Eight: The White Mountains

A magnificent vista surrounded Boreas as he followed Black over the thin mountain trail. They were high up on one of the White Mountains, though nowhere near the top. Aqua had been right that he would be amazed by the size of mountains, as he had admitted to her the day they'd first seen the range on the horizon and he had realised just how immensely far away the mountains still were. Now he was looking the opposite way: he was on the mountain's grassy slope, looking out over the plains of Route 7, which were occasionally interspersed by small towns and villages. Unova looked very calm and peaceful from up here; neither Boreas nor Unova realised both the calmth and peace the region was enjoying would come to an end only a few days later.

This high up on the mountain there were no more trees; only grass. Yet the snow was still higher up, covering the tall white summit which towered above them like only a mountain can. The Sun burnt very warmly and was very irritating at this height, but it was surprisingly cold whenever there was a shadow, like from a big rock or a cloud moving in front of the blazing Sun. At first Boreas had had to breathe rapidly with the thinner air up here, though now he only noticed it because he got tired sooner than normal when he had to exert himself.

Pokémon were rare up here: the ice-types that lived here most of the year had moved up the mountain, along with the snow, when the snow melted a few weeks before. Pokémon from the mountain's lower slopes didn't have much to seek on the bare alpine tundra and stayed mainly in the forests. The only pokémon here were cattle belonging to the farmers from mountain villages.

Their path followed the curve of the mountain into the range, so they soon exchanged the magnificent view of Route 7's plains for an even more magnificent view of the valleys between the mountains, deep below, where a beautiful lake gleamed in the Sun and vast forests covered the land. It was clear now that the mountain they were on was, with its 3500 metres of height, quite small compared to the other peaks of the White Mountains. The other mountains around the valleys easily dwarfed it, reaching up to more than five kilometres into the air, and Mount Twist, the highest mountain in Unova south of the Black Mountains in the north, dwarfed even them. From their current vantage, they looked onto some clouds that hung surprisingly low over the mountains' slopes from above. Other clouds hung higher, covering some of the peaks. But none of the clouds reaches as high as Mt. Twist's tall peak, which cast shadows even on other peaks with a height of nearly seven kilometres. Since Icirrus was on the other side of Mt. Twist, they'd have to get around it. Black had asked for directions to Icirrus in both of the villages they had come through, and in both villages they had pointed him of a path going low over Mt. Twist's slopes that he should follow. So that was indeed the path they had followed so far.

–

"It's two more hours to go to the village of Willowind," Black panted, encouraging himself and his pokémon as they laboured up the steep, rocky slope. "We can sleep there for the night."

After going along the side of three different mountains in five days, their path had started sloping upwards, to the rocky zone at 3 kilometres above the ground, just below the edge of eternal snow, where even grass didn't grow. Even now, in the middle of May, it was just above freezing here, but the Sun's light was horridly powerful and stung even on a furred skin. Black and Octa were lucky Black had bought a bottle of very powerful sunblock, or they'd probably be burnt as red as a lobster by now. The only plants here were occasional tiny flowers growing between the rocks and lichen that grew on them.

Climbing the steep path was exhausting even on four legs. Black was panting very loudly in the thin air. "Oh, look!" He panted happily from ahead, "We've finally reached a horizontal bit- woah!"

Boreas saw what had startled Black so much as he caught up to the human: As they reached the top of this low mountain, there was indeed a long horizontal bit. Over the thin, elongated ridge that formed the mountain's summit, that is. Instead of going over the side of the mountain, as it had before, the path ran over a ridge of about a metre wide, a very steep slope downwards on both sides. It was utterly terrifying to see depths of hundreds of metres on both sides. On the slopes themselves, the depth on one side of the path had never bothered Boreas, as the other side of the path always sloped up, giving you a safe, sturdy mountain on that side. But with a depth on both sides, it became clear just _how _high they were, and how flat they'd be if they fell.

"W-well," Black stammered. "I... guess it must be safe if the path goes over it?" he said unsurely.

But the safety of the path was not really what bothered Boreas, or the others. The problem was that it _looked_ terrifying, and walking over the ridge for about an hour seemed very scary. Boreas looked at his companions to see who would take the first steps on the thin ridge. But all of them were too scared. While Selene probably wasn't afraid, she had lots of trouble flying in this thin air.

Octa sighed and stepped forward. "You are right, old chap. This path would not be here if the locals did not use it at least occasionally; logically it must be reasonably safe." He started walking ahead.

"Hmpf, him and his 'logic'..." Toxica mumbled as she followed him. "But I can do anything he can!"

Octa's example gave Boreas, Black, and Lucius the courage to follow as well. While it was very scary at first, the feeling quickly subsided to a mere queasiness once he was on the ridge. The vast vistas on both sides were slightly terrifying, but he tried to keep his mind off it. Lucius passed him and put Selene on his shoulder. "Your turn to carry the chicken, pup. It's your fault she started following us around in the first place."

"Jerk," Boreas muttered as he greeted Selene, who was now perched on his shoulder.

"Don't worry, Boreas," said Selene, "I'll just fly and save you the trouble of carrying me."

While Boreas would prefer not to have to carry her on the rough mountain ridge, he knew she couldn't fly, and he wouldn't want to risk her life. "No, you can't. Remember when you tried yesterday and crashed?"

"Yesterday?" Selene asked with a squinted face. "I thought that was tomorrow."

"No, it- huh?" Boreas asked in surprise. "Tomorrow?"

"It's the day after today," Selene helped.

"Yyyes... So I've heard," said Boreas, scrutinising Selene to see if she was serious or just exaggerating her oddness.

"Anyway," she told, "I think I've figured out why I can't fly any more."

"It's because of the thin-"

"Mountain gnomes must have tied their invisible tangerines to my feet, and they're weighing me down now."

"air, in which- what?"

"Obviously a tangerine grown in mountains will have greater mass than one grown on flat land, which makes it even harder to fly," Selene rattled on.

Boreas stared at her in bafflement, then grinned. "You're pulling my leg, aren't you?"

Selene looked down at his legs. "I'm sitting on your shoulder, Boreas. I can't even reach your legs, let alone pull them."

"What I mean is: you're joking. Don't bother playing dumb, Selene, I know you're not quite as crazy as you like to pretend you are, and you overdid it just now."

Selene stared into his eyes with a long, blank stare, then said: "Boreas? Oh, I didn't see you there. Don't worry about the tangerines, they're not infectious." She suddenly jumped on his back and hugged him.

"Selene, quit it!" Boreas berated her, "get back on my shoulder and stop doing this, or you can walk for yourself."

Selene hopped back to his shoulder. "Sorry. Did I ever tell you about my uncle Istvan?"

Boreas was starting to worry about Selene. It might all be an act, but then again, she did crash pretty hard when she tried to fly the day before, and the air was rather thin at this height, and the Sun shone very hard; and all these things could mean she really was only barely bouncing off the sides of sanity. "No, you haven't. You have never told me about your family, or really anything that happened before I met you."

"Well," she explained, "the first thing I should say is that he was not really _my _uncle Istvan; he's everyone's uncle Istvan! He's as much my uncle Istvan as your uncle Istvan! Or, if I dare say it – and I think I dare – Cedric Juniper's uncle Istvan!"

"R-right."

"Either or both ways, uncle Istvan's day were made when the Dead People's Olympics Committee promoted him to be captain of the gravy train. So he would boat it around all day, delivering gravy to people's houses and writing rude messages to strangers. But one day, there came this Tranquill on board who would spit him in his ears when he fell asleep. It was not easy, being a secret agent. Fortunately he could always call his friends and hang up on them, which was a good thing. Let me ask a different question in the same way: it's just simple logic, isn't it?"

Boreas stared at her after her mad rant, unsure whether she had really lost it this time or was just pretending. Either way, he decided he should get her checked out at Icirrus' pokécenter, and keep an eye on her at all times before that. He passed Lucius to go talk to Octa to tell him about Selene's bizarre behaviour, even by her standards.

"My dear fellow," Octa greeted him. "'Tis quite a view we have from here, is it not?"

Boreas shivered a bit as he was reminded of the great depths on both sides. "I really wish you hadn't said that... Anyway: Selene is acting weird."

Octa raised both eyebrows. "You don't say? My dear fellow, I do thank you for this information. I suppose the next ray of enlightenment you wish to extend upon my humble ears shall be to inform me the Sun is quite a warm place?"

"Weirder than usual, I mean," Boreas snapped. "I think we should have her checked out at the Icirrus pokécenter. How long d'you think before we get there?"

Octa extended his hands before his face and took some measurements. "The angle between Mount Twist's peak and my hypothesis of its base is, by my estimate, around sixty degrees. This is equal to one radian, ergo we are approximately six kilometres, its height, away. Since Icirrus is on Mount Twist's other side, we would be two hours away at most if we could travel in a straight line, but these being the mountains, I honestly can't say. It could be several days."

Boreas looked around at the magnificent view, walking a bit behind Octa with Selene still sitting on his shoulder. His mind wandered back to the delightful time he had spent with Aqua. Day after day had been absolute bliss with her. He sighed loudly as he suddenly missed her a lot.

"You look none too happy, my dear fellow," said Octa.

Boreas sighed. "I miss Aqua... A lot."

"Do you?" Octa asked. "I suppose that is quite understandable, my dear fellow."

"She asked me to stay with her... And I would've done anything to do so and stay with her forever... But I couldn't, not with this business with Team Plasma going on... These past three weeks have been the happiest of my life, Octa."

"Were they?"

"Yeah... I love her. I told her that, and she said she loved me too! She loves me, Octa, can you believe that?"

"Barely."

"Well, better start believing it, because it's true! The most beautiful girl in the world loves me!"

"Or at least Aqua does."

"She's mine and- what? You don't think she's the most beautiful girl in the world?"

"No. With so many different species of creatures in the world, I would highly doubt there is such a thing as the single most beautiful girl in the world, as each species are considerably more attracted to their own kind than to others."

"Fine, the most beautiful Eevee in the world."

"I don't think so. The chances of you coincidentally meeting the most beautiful Eevee in the world are very slim. Don't get me wrong, she looks fine, quite good really. Just not better than every single other Eevee on the planet, I'm sure. She is probably in the top half, quite possibly even the top quarter, but I am fairly certain she is nowhere near the most beautiful Eevee in the world."

"You're a real romantic, you know that?" Boreas asked with annoyance. "To _me _she's the most beautiful girl in the world."

"Fine. To you. But you know she's not, really. After all, much though the case could be argued, you're not mad. You just fancy her more than she's objectively attractive."

Boreas frowned. "Octa, shut up."

"That's a good thing! That's what love is, isn't it? Two people who are a little bit deluded in each other's favour."

"Say, have you been this annoying a lot, lately? Is that why Toxica is so bitter with you now?"

Octa suddenly looked terribly down. "No, it isn't," he said morosely. "The reason she acts that way is because my mother told her about my obligations to my family... To be more precise, those with relevance to breeding..."

Boreas forgot his annoyance with his friend. "Oh. And then Toxica realised you could've told her that a year ago and spared her a lot of trouble?"

Octa nodded. "Indeed. She... is quite angry with me for withholding said information from her."

"Well, to be honest I would be as well. I told you you should have told her. Why didn't you?"

"I do not want to talk about it."

–

Boreas couldn't sleep, though he was exhausted from all the climbing in thin air. It was a good thing they had reached the mountain village, so they could get a room in a small hotel; because it was freezing almost twenty degrees outside. It wouldn't have been a problem to Boreas, of course, but it certainly would have been to the others. He had looked forward to sleep so much the last bit of the exhausting journey, yet he couldn't get to sleep now, as his thoughts were filled with Aqua. Her smile, her eyes, everything she'd said to him... Particularly when she had told him she loved him. He so hoped he'd see her again soon.

"Octa," he heard Toxica whisper, "Octa!"

Octa snored loudly.

"I know you're awake, so quit pretendin' to be asleep!"

"Fine, I am indeed awake. Be quiet, or you'll wake everyone up," Octa said with annoyance.

"Then I'll whisper quietly. I want to know what you were gonna say when we were suddenly surrounded by ghosts in the Celestial Tower, and I want to know it now. I've waited long enough for you to return to the subject by yourself. Now you're going to tell me why you never told me about your family's stupid rule."

"I'd really rather not," Octa whispered.

"I don't care, I want you to tell me," said Toxica, resolutely.

"Please. I can assure you telling you this shall only make it harder. I do not want to tell you, because it would make you feel worse."

"I'll be the judge of that. Tell me."

Octa sighed. "Fine. The reason I never told you is because you would inevitably have asked me about whether or not I feel attracted to you, as well. And I couldn't have lied to you or hidden the truth after such a direct question... Toxica, I am in love with you as well."

"W-what?"

"Quite, yes. But, don't you see? I cannot allow myself to act on those feelings; you are neither of noble blood nor a Serperior. I cannot allow myself to fraternise with you. Now do you see why I never have told you? I could not bring myself to break your heart, nor to lie to you about my feelings. Can you forgive me?"

Boreas heard a sniff and other sounds of crying. "No. I-I wish I'd never met you now," Toxica cried.

"I apologise," said Octa as Boreas heard him get up and walk out of the room.

Boreas had no idea Octa was in love with Toxica as well. Now that he thought of it, Octa being in love with Toxica but trying to suppress his feelings for her because he didn't want to break his family's tradition explained so much about his behaviour... He sighed and stood up, remembering the final conversation he'd had with Capella, mere hours before her death.

"_I'm going to do everything in my power to convince him to jump at love and not let family tradition stand in the way of his happiness. I'm sure you'll do the same."_

_Yes, I will,_ Boreas thought determinedly as he stood up. _Capella might be gone, but I'm not and I'll get him to change his mind!_

"You-you heard us?" Toxica sniffed as she saw him go after Octa.

Boreas nodded apologetically as he left the room and followed Octa, who had gone outside. Boreas found his friend sitting on a lichen-covered rock outside, staring at the amazingly clear night sky. "Octa, I've got to talk to you."

"I am not in the mood for it, my dear fellow. Besides, 'tis quite rude to overhear the conversations of others, and even more so to meddle in their business. That _is_ why you're here, isn't it?"

"I couldn't help not falling asleep, and I _am_ going to meddle in your business because I'm your friend, and because I promised Capella."

"Do not interfere," said Octa, threateningly. "I warn you: if you continue this line of conversation you stand a good chance of permanently damaging our friendship."

"I'll take that chance, then! I'm not letting you throw your chance at happiness away. I promised Capella the final time I spoke to her. Really spoke to her, I mean, not a quick word in battle. We promised we would protect you from your family's stupid rules when you fell in love, and since Capella is dead I'll have to carry that promise out on my own."

"Do not bother me. You shan't change my mind, so this is useless."

"I don't agree! Let me tell you about my relationship with Aqua. It was... The most amazing time I've ever had. Nothing and no-one has ever stirred such powerful emotions in me as she has. Both the good and the bad ones. But mainly the good ones. Kissing her is like-"

"Do not bother me with this. I have read more than enough books involving the subject, so I daresay I know more than enough about the matter and the emotions involved."

"No, you don't! Reading about love and actually experiencing it are completely different! And that's because there are no words sufficient to describe the joy of spending time with your loved one, the tantalising spark you feel when she touches you, her amazing kiss..."

"Yet I _shall_ experience all those feelings, simply not with Toxica."

"No, you shan't! You'll never really love whoever your family picks, but you love Toxica! You can't just choose whom you love!"

Octa squinted at him with a look of disgust. "You arrogant little Glaceon. What do you think makes _you_ know better than the entire house of Equinox? We have done it this way for thirty-five generations, and we have a glorious legacy to account for it! On the other hand, you know nothing of your family! Only the last two generations, whom you've known personally!"

"So what? A legacy is useless! Nothing more than a story you tell to make you feel superior! Because like it or not, almost every single member of the house of Equinox is dead! Their deeds are all in the past and were not your deeds! It doesn't matter whom you descend from, what matters is your own life!"

"Be quiet!" Octa hissed furiously. "A lower-class pokémon like yourself would never understand the great gift of a noble birth!"

"See, there you go! "Lower-class pokémon," your ancestry is nothing more than an excuse to feel superior to others! What do your ancestors' deeds matter to _your_ life? They are not living your life! Look at all the billions of pokémon like myself who have ancestors of mixed species, probably none of noble blood! And yet we can live admirably and happily!"

"I'm not going to continue trading insults with you!" Octa stood up and tried to walk away. But Boreas quickly grabbed his tail.

"I haven't finished talking to you."

Octa slowly turned around and stared in Boreas' eyes. Suddenly Boreas felt as if he was being stabbed with sharp daggers under the force of Octa's furious stare. "Let. Me. Go. Now!"

Boreas felt his paw almost instinctively move to release Octa's tail, but he stopped himself and looked back into Octa's eyes, his eyes watering almost immediately. "No. We need to talk."

Octa furiously grabbed Boreas' paw and bent the fingers pack to release his tail, so Boreas grabbed his arms. Octa pushed him away and tried to escape, but Boreas kept holding him firmly. Octa hissed threateningly and tried to push Boreas over, so Boreas tried to do the same to him, pushing each other over, they both fell onto the ground, Boreas managing to land on top, pinning Octa down. Octa wrestled against Boreas, but he didn't let him go, so he punched him in the paw. Boreas ignited in fury as his paw flared with pain. He tried to hold himself back, but after Octa's stupid insistence not to listen to him his temper was already strained.

He punched and clawed at Octa, who fought back as he tried to get out from under Boreas, hitting him on the eye. His eye was in severe pain and he could barely see with it any more, so he punched Octa's face to make him pay for that. Octa punched his stomach, making him howl in pain. Octa used the opportunity to escape from Boreas' grab, throw him to the cold, rocky ground, and pin him down.

Boreas looked up to the furious Servine who was about to hit him again, and he suddenly felt his own anger at this whole situation disappear, and he grinned up at Octa, whose anger seemed to have subsided for the moment as well. "Ouch, that was quite the punch. You're not bad."

Octa chuckled at this and lowered his fist. "Thanks, my dear fellow. You're not bad yourself, my lips feel very painful and swollen after that punch you gave them."

Boreas laughed and patted Octa's shoulder. "I had little choice. Who knew you'd be so strong you could beat an ice-type like me?"

"Oh, don't flatter me, my dear fellow, neither of us used our elemental powers, so typing does not really matter here."

Boreas laughed. He realised how weird this was: a minute ago they had been furious at each other, and fighting had seemed to somehow have cleared the tension rather than make it worse. His eye really hurt, though. "How does my eye look?"

Octa cringed. "Swollen, bloody and painful. I apologise for that."

"Don't bother, I guess it was my own fault."

They were silent for a while, Octa still lying on top of Boreas. "Um," Octa spoke. "I believe I shall consider your earlier words. But you see, I have no choice, I can't just pick the mate I want."

"Why? What is your family going to do about it?"

"They'd get quite angry, but it is not so much my family as my descendants I am worried about... I don't want them to be born without pure blood. My family would never accept them either."

"Look, just because you're in a relationship with a girl doesn't automatically mean you're going to have children with her. I mean, I love Aqua deeply, but neither of us has any intention of becoming a parent. Certainly not yet. If you want my advice: get over yourself," he echoed.

"What?" Octa frowned.

"You're rejecting Toxica based solely on the belief that you're better than her. But you believe you're better for reasons entirely outside of either of your control: your ancestors. Isn't how a person lives far more important than how their ancestors did? Didn't you yourself tell me the first time we talked about this subject, when I was just a little Eevee-cub, that if someone isn't well-bred it simply means they'll have to achieve greatness for themselves? Look at Toxica over the past year, and tell me she hasn't acted at least as great as your ancestors would've done."

"My dear fellow, this is not up to me! If it was my decision, then yes, maybe I would agree that there should be an exception to the rules in this case, for Toxica might indeed make a valuable addition to our house. But it's the decision of my family."

"Octa, they have no right to decide that for you. It's your life, not theirs. Besides, you agree that tradition, or rule, or whatever it is needs changing, don't you? Well, it will never change if you keep propagating it. Then your family will continue acting like your great-aunt."

"But, my dear fellow, traditions and rules are important."

"No. Don't let yourself be bogged down by traditions and rules. If you do something simply because your ancestors did that as well, then the same mistakes get made every generation! And rules are only good as long as they help justice. The moment a rule is useless or causes injustice, it should be discarded."

"But I can't simply change the rules, my dear fellow! Not on my own."

"I'm sure change always begins with one person. One person who realises things could be better, and proceeds to make them better. Be that person, Octa. Your family might be angry at first, but eventually I'm sure they'll change their rules. Let me ask you something important: how much do you love Toxica?"

Octa smiled. "Ah, quoting my own rhetoric against me, I see. Very clever, my dear fellow. You have given me a lot to think about," Octa said as he gave Boreas a hug.

"Right," said Boreas. "That's good. Uh, Octa, would you mind getting off me and letting me get up?"

–

AUTHOR'S NOTES: I think I want to change the summary text of this story, but I'll have to think of something good to summarise the story within 256 (I think) characters...

I hope I didn't overdo the scenery porn in the beginning of the chapter. The descriptions of the mountains were all based on this year's vacation in Austria (Gods, that path over the ridge was terrifying and amazing).

FEEDBACK: Guardian54: Q: You are a great author..

On the other hand, maybe you should commission someone else for your visual art, at least the drawings, no offence, but after reading your writing they don't really match up to the same standards as said writing...

A: Thanks. I know my drawings aren't very good. They're more intended as rough guidelines of each character's characteristics, for other people who might want to draw them, than as great portraits in and of themselves. I could commission other people, of course, but the problem is commissioning costs money. And I don't have much money. But anyone who wants to draw a character or scene from my story is free to do so, of course.

Q: I have a sudden bad feeling that Black will win, but Boreas, Aqua and Toxica will all die horribly ever after. Will this have a total tragic ending?

A: It will have a happy ending. For _some_ characters. That is all I can say about the ending.

The Bulbafinatic: Q: Nice chapter. Though it did seem a little too lovey dovey. Too much kissing.

A: Indeed, lots of it around. But then, we hadn't had a lovey-dovey chapter since chapter 34 (or 29, as 34 was more hurt/comfort-y).

Q: I linked to the pictures at the bottom of the page, and I'd have to say that I liked the Diego picture the best. You have an interesting way with these pictures, and they put up a different point of view for the Pokémon. Their faces seem humanoid or something...

A: That might be because they're flat. The reason for that is simple: I can't draw a snout to save my life. Their faces are not really supposed to be flat, it's simply a limitation to my drawing. Or it might be their eyebrows and human-like eyes. Those are because I'm bad enough at eyes as it is, animal-like eyes are nearly impossible for me to draw well. And the eyebrows are because I like eyebrows, and have referenced them a lot in my story (let's face it, Octa arches an eyebrow so often, it's not as if he could go without them).

Q: Do you take into consideration what Pokemon can breed with? For example, Bulbasaur can breed with Turtwig, Snivy, Oddish, Breloom, and whoever, but would you allow in the story for them to breed with guys which they normally can't breed with in the games, like Charizard? Just an example, I'm not expecting a Bulbasaur and her husband the Charizard to appear in the story... but in the case of other Pokemon, would you?

A: For procreation I keep to the egg groups, but I don't really believe procreation is a requirement for romance or love, so I won't neccesarily be keeping those within egg groups. (Incidentally, Bulbasaur and Charizard can breed together; they're both in the Monster egg group)

Q: When you write your first book, tell me what the title is, so I can read it. Please?

A: Of course. Though it's likely years away, so don't hold your breath unless your lungs are very big.

UNKNOWN: Q: The key words to this chappie are probably 'love' and 'kiss' in all tenses. If I were bored, I would have counted how many times they're said and typed, as usual.

A: You could probably get quite pissed if you did a drinking game with those two words on the previous chapter, yeah.

Q: However, I didn't, so you really are something else, dude, I'm not even trying to kiss ass. I usually can't stand the mushy stuff, yours is tolerable for some reason.

A: Well, that's great. I'm glad my romance is tolerable to you.

Q: - My personal HATE list -

#1 Lucius

#2 Diego

#3 (not-so)Great Aunt Galaxia

WHO'S NEXT ? Hmm, maybe all 3 should be friends...

A: Heh, little chance of that, they'd probably all hate each other. Lucius would hate Diego for being part of Team Plasma, and thus playing a role in killing Capella. Galaxia is highly arrogant and posh, much more so than Octa, which Lucius wouldn't like either. Diego wouldn't like Lucius because he's actively fighting against Plasma, and would consider Galaxia brainwashed by humans to an even greater extent than normal pokémon. Galaxia wouldn't like either of the others because they're both lower-class, and both quite rude and unpleasant.

Q: I have finally come to the long, enduring, surprising, puzzling, PREPOSTEROUS conclusion: Selene is insane. Yes, it's a miracle, I actually CONCUR with Lucius, of ALL Pokemon!

A: Let me quote her (as well as Salvador Dalí): "The difference between a crazy person and me is that I'm not crazy."

Sir Raymond Quaza: Q: Well, thank goodness that you don't write lemons. Reading that being graphically depicted probably would have chased me off of the site for good.

A: Don't worry, this story has a T rating and I'd prefer to keep it. You probably get very few visitors with a higher rating, because the search engine excludes those fics by standard.

Q: Anyway... is Aqua really ignorant of Diego's nature, or is there a kinder side to the Monster Fox Pokemon that we jst haven't met yet?

A: Who knows? Maybe both, maybe neither.

creativityfails: Q: You sir, write a good romance which is better than what I can say for some. However, you also write a very good adventure, and I almost feel like missing those lovely dark chapters.

A: Thank you. Don't worry, the adventure isn't over. Part seven is just a bit of a calm breather, for the characters, the readers, and me, between the dark part six, and part eight, which will be... Hehe, well you'll see what part eight will be like in chapter 50, when it starts.

KidChimera00: Q: And that's where eevee's come from! Heh heh.

A: Indeed they do. Not in this case, though; it would not be very ethical of them to have cubs in the middle of all this Plasma business, while fighting on opposite sides, after all. Plus, neither of them is ready or cut out to be a parent. Now, I can sense a question which I'll probably get: "But how does a pokémon prevent cute little Eevee cubs from resulting from doing the horizontal mambo?" The answer to that is, of course: "I don't know, and if I asked them the answer they'd give me would probably be: "Mind your own business, you nosy bastard."" So, in short, I don't know and don't really want to pay it too much attention; but they do have some way of preventing them. Considering the vulnerabily of gametes to temperatures above or below body temperature, maybe using an ice-attack or Scald actually leaves them temporarily infertile for a few days, who knows?

Q: Anyway, I had a bit of fridge lodgic earlier and regarding Octa and Toxica, can't Octa "fulfill his duty" so to speak THEN be allowed to be with Toxica, kinda like what Tiberius did?

A: Well, as Claudia explained to Toxica: there was no chance of any children resulting from Tiberius' second union. If Octa were to hook up with Toxica after his previous mate died (which would have to happen first), there would still be the chance of Equinox half-bloods running around, which is not a thought they like.

TrueBolt: Q: I thought of a name sugjestion for the air freezing move that Boreas invented. 'Frost Concussion.' I did some research but couldent find anything better personaly.

A: Hmm, maybe. I'll consider using it.

Q: About the title... well... I thought what if you used a double title like: "Quest Of Unova. *A Glaceon Adventure*" Just an idea.

A: I think it's a bit late now to change the title still. I think I'll stick with The Surprising Adventures of a Glaceon in Unova.

Q: Next; the characters are amasing. I also was a HUGE fan of Capella, and her death weighed heavily on my soul. *cries*

A: Thanks, that is always good to hear.

Q: I think Lucious is actualy a vital part of you'r story. Not only dose he provide some comic relief, but provides some stability to the groupe. Even more so I think, scince Selene joined the groupe.

A: Heh, it's good to see Lucius get some love. It seems a number of readers really hate him, but you're right. He provides a bit of a counterweight for all the pleasant, intelligent and friendly characters in the team.

Q: mabey include the word 'Novel' in the title somewhere

A: Hmm, I dunno. I might put it in the descrption/summary thing, though, if I can think of something good.


	49. Ice Mask

Chapter Forty-Nine: Ice Mask

"What in the name of Arceus' balls is that thing?" Boreas wondered as he looked down to Icirrus and saw the city was dominated by the most bizarre piece of architecture he had ever seen.

"Methinks 'tis Dragonspiral Tower," said Octa. "Such a foolish name."

"Foolish name? More like foolish design. I mean, those two parts of the tower look a bit like dragons and they spiral around each other."

"My dear fellow, that is not a spiral, but a helix. A double helix, to be precise. It has absolutely nothing to do with a spiral."

"Maybe the people who named it didn't like how 'Double Dragonhelix Tower' sounded?" Boreas suggested.

"Or maybe they were fools who did not know the difference between a spiral and a helix."

Boreas felt as if this was at least partially directed towards him. "Hey! Just because someone doesn't know the difference between a spiral and a helix doesn't mean they're a fool! The only fool is whoever designed that thing. It doesn't look as if it should be able to stand at all."

Quibbling about this, they descended to Icirrus. It was a small and grassy city on a plateau, two kilometres above the ground. The tall Dragonspiral Tower was by far the most impressive landmark of the city; it started at the ground as a plain grey, cylindrical tower. About a third of the way up to the top, it split into two towers; a black one and a white one. The two semi-towers twisted around each other five times in a double helix before reuniting to form a shared, grey top which was decorated with statues of dragons. It was an amazing and otherworldly piece of architecture and it looked nearly impossible for the two spiralling semi-towers to support the large top. Many people, when first seeing the tower, thought its architect must've been very drunk when he designed it. They were wrong, of course, as the fact that a tower with this design had still managed to remain standing for fifteen hundred years.

–

"...And then, my lord N, your perfect world will finally be reality," Ghetsis finished his explanation.

"But..." said N, "won't everyone just release their pokémon if I defeat the Champion with Zekrom and tell them to?"

"Oh, no no no," spoke Ghetsis, "the wise and the good who are simply misguided will do so, of course. But many humans are evil and selfish, my lord. They will not listen to you, even with Zekrom at your side. They will need the extra pressure our plan will put on them."

"He's right," said Diego. "You know humans can't be trusted. Um, present company excepted, of course. The evil and selfish humans will keep holding on to their pokémon unless we give them the choice to release them or die."

Hearing the Sages' plan had given Aqua the creeps. Her distrust of the Sages was only made worse because Ryoku was one of the three Sages explaining the plan. She didn't know too much about Giallo or Ghetsis, but Ryoku had tried to execute Boreas and his friends without any provocation at all, and actually succeeded in killing Capella. She hadn't known the Dratini very well personally, but Boreas had been very attached to her. And it wasn't as if Giallo and Ghetsis were innocent angels either: from what Boreas had told her Ryoku had acted because the Sages had all decided to kill them together. "No, he isn't," she said, turning all heads to her. "Declaring war on all trainers and killing those who don't agree to release them? That's despicable! I thought the plan to release Zekrom would result in few casualties, or I wouldn't have joined it in the first place! We can't just kill everyone who disagrees with us!"

"Aqua has a point, Ghetsis," said N. "Killing lots of people to bring my perfect world about seems wrong, somehow..."

The three Sages laughed. "Don't worry, my lord," smiled the skeleton-like Ryoku. "It's simply a bluff. The number of people that will actuarry have to die will be low. When they see our resolve to free the pokémon is large enough to kill them for it if they continue their evil practises, it will frighten them. They will fear for their rives, and won't not keep enslaving their pokémon if doing so threatens their own lives. So they'll release them. Because the good, brave trainers who are simply misguided and might actually be brave enough to resist us will recognise Zeklom's power and authority and release their pokémon when you command them."

The massively fat Giallo nodded, making his various chins wobble under his sweaty, moustached face. "Sì, our enemies are-ah weak and selfeesh, and weel fear for their-ah lives. Maybe a few of them weel be fooleesh enough to keep their-ah pokémon, and, sì, they weel die, and eet weel be a shame-ah they deed, even eef they were-ah eveel. But they'll be weeth only a few."

"My lord," spoke Ghetsis. "Can you really abandon all those poor, captive pokémon we have been fighting for, simply because a few selfish fools decide to stand in our way? Would you really let evil triumph, simply because they will put up a little resistance?"

"Well... That _is _a good point..." said N.

"Of course it is. My lord, have I ever lied to you? And if you will not trust me, I'm sure the Zoroark who raised you will agree with me."

"But what if good people also refuse to release their pokémon?" Aqua interjected. "My boyfriend's trainer, for example, really seems to be friends with his pokémon, and he is a good person. My boyfriend has told me much about him, and I think this is really true. He'll never release his pokémon." It was strange, but she somehow had the idea the three Sages understood every word she said.

"Your boyfriend," Diego scoffed, "is a liar. Or he is deluded. His trainer is not really his friend, he is merely trying to convince himself of that, because he doesn't want to see the truth: he is a captive. A slave."

"That's what I said to him when I first talked to him. But we've talked much about it since then... And I'm quite convinced that Boreas really is friends with Black. He won't release his pokémon, whether because N and Zekrom tell him or because these three bastards threaten to kill him."

Diego scowled. "Don't call them that. They are wise, powerful humans with a great vision of the future. And yet you insult them, simply because your boyfriend told you all kinds of lies about them."

Aqua arched an eyebrow. "When did you start worshipping the Sages?"

"I don't 'worship' them," Diego growled. "I simply know who my friends are and who my enemies, unlike some others here who sleep with the enemy but insult and reject their friends..."

"Why, you-"

N interrupted: "Look, petty arguing isn't going to get us anywhere. While Ghetsis' plan may have sounded bad at first, a bit of explanation has really improved my opinion of it. If evil humans continue to stand in our way even when Zekrom is on our side and I become Champion, we will sadly have to get them out of our way."

The Sages bowed for N. "You are wise, my lord," spoke Ghetsis. "The attack on the tower will commence two hours from now, and it will be the first battle of the final war that will ever need to be fought. We will go instruct the grunts to their role in our plan, but unfortunately we seem to have forgotten to bring paper... Can we borrow your Zoroark for a while so he can use his illusions to help instruct the grunts? You know how simple-minded they can sometimes be, so we really need to give them visual information if we want this to go correctly."

"Sure," shrugged N. The Sages walked away, Diego following them.

"N," said Aqua, "their plan feels very wrong to me... And I really don't think we should trust them. I told you about their desire for power..."

N smiled. "Aqua, you only heard Boreas claim they are doing this for power, but he is our enemy, much though I hate the idea. The Sages are on our side, and my perfect world will never be a reality without them."

"I'm not sure whether it will ever be a reality _with_ them."

"Listen," said N, "I know the Sages will sometimes use somewhat bad means to achieve their ends, but they are only human, unlike us. For humans, they are very good people. I know it feels wrong, but their plan is the right one, I'm sure of it. After all, as Ghetsis said, we can't abandon all those poor pokémon simply because some evil humans stand in our way."

–

To Boreas' surprise, Nurse Ebola hadn't been able to find anything wrong with Selene. Though she had pointed out that this didn't necessarily mean there really wasn't anything wrong with the Murkrow, it still made Boreas suspect she had just been teasing him with the mad rants, and made him feel quite annoyed.

The Icirrus Gym was located at the edge of town, built in a cave in the mountain-side. A façade decorated with statues of ice-types had been built in front of it, and it was through that that Black and his pokémon entered the icy cold cave-Gym. The Gym contained big, frozen fields of very slippery ice and long, curving slopes of snow that looked great to slide on. Octa slipped when he set foot on the ice, but fortunately Boreas, whose feet were of course equipped to remain standing even on the most slippery ice, managed to catch him. "Careful, Octa."

Gratefully leaning on Boreas, Octa managed to remain standing as they slid to the centre of the ice field, where a lone, masked figure in a blue toga stood.

"I accept your challenge," said Brycen. "Since we both have a Glaceon, let's make this battle a duel between them."

"Sure thing," said Black. "Go, Boreas!"

As Brycen wordlessly threw a pokéball, Boreas realised with a start that the battle's entire success or failure now depended on him. After a flash of light, a pretty, well-kept female Glaceon appeared, her every hair gleaming in the light and her hair meticulously kept in the three-diamond hairstyle that Boreas had never bothered to maintain. Boreas realised with a bit of shame how scruffy he had to look next to the other Glaceon. So he was determined to try and compensate by acting as gallantly as possible. He greeted his opponent with a bow like he had often seen Octa do. "My name is Boreas. Good luck, and may the best Glaceon win!"

She nodded, though it was quite clear from her expression who she thought that was. Their Ice Beams collided in mid-air with an ice-cold flash. Boreas' opponent fired another Ice Beam, which Boreas quickly parried with a pulse of air, and then he riposted with an Ice Beam of his own, which she parried with an impressively quick Ice Beam.

Boreas tried to analyse the fight as they tried to hit each other with Ice Beam. She was clearly faster than him with Ice Beam, firing them in a rapid succession that he couldn't match up to. On the other hand, she didn't appear to know his parrying move which used a blast of cold to create liquid air... He really needed to think of a name for that. He decided 'Frost Concussion' would do for now. So she was quicker with Ice Beam, but he could use Frost Concussion. That left him on the defensive, though, as the move wasn't much use to attack with. If his opponent was constantly attacking and he constantly defending, he wasn't doing her any damage.

Realising his disadvantage was too great to win if the battle continued like this while parrying a constant onslaught of Ice Beams, he switched to using the weaker Icy Wind for his offence. It was not very powerful and unlikely to bother a fellow ice-type much, but at least she couldn't parry it with her rapid Ice Beams. An icy cloud of rapid winds emanated from him as he ducked under an Ice Beam aimed for his head. The cloud flew at his opponent. But she stopped her rapid barrage of Ice Beams and created an icy cloud of her own, much bigger and mightier than his, the winds inside it roaring with stormy power. His puny little Icy Wind was easily blown away by the massive Blizzard.

Then the tremendously powerful storm of snow and ice enveloped Boreas, despite his best efforts to blow it away. The cold was incredible, easily penetrating even his well-insulated fur and flesh and chilling him to the bone. He had no idea cold could feel so bad; normally it felt good or at most a little annoying to him; but in the Blizzard, so cold it rained drops of terribly painful liquid air, even he was pained by it. He dashed through the powerful winds to escape, and emerged shivering and covered with ice.

Now that he knew her advantage wasn't just her rapid Ice Beams, but also her mastery of Blizzard, he saw little way to win this, despite his own advantage of Frost Concussion. Even if he exploited that to its most, Blizzard was just too powerful and there was little point to trying to parry it. He ran up a slope to buy himself some time to think. He tried to play out several attack plans in his mind as he ducked under an Ice Beam from his pursuing opponent, and concluded that he stood no chance. Blizzard gave her an overwhelming advantage. Even if he managed to get into mêlée, where her advantage was less, she could probably weaken him with another Blizzard before then. So he had about seven seconds to master Blizzard himself. _Unless..._

–

Diego walked by Ghetsis, waiting for N and his other pokémon to safely be out of earshot. "Ghetsis," he smiled, "it's a pleasure to see you again."

Ghetsis smiled too. "And you as well, Diego. How are you?"

It had been quite amusing to Diego to watch his friend and the other Sages pretend not to understand a word of what the pokémon were saying in front of N. It was all part of giving the boy a delusion of grandeur and hide the fact that he was really Ghetsis' son, of course: Diego had always told N his ability to understand pokémon was unique and proved he was really a pokémon in human form himself. Of course, all it really took, like understanding any language, was spending a lot of time with the speakers and really trying to understand them. While Ghetsis and the other Sages didn't understand him quite as well as N, their understanding of pokémon speech, like that of many other pokémon masters, was quite good. Good enough to maintain their friendship, in any case. "I'm very well. After all, in a few hours we'll have won our greatest victory."

"So we will," Ghetsis nodded. "When Zekrom is ours and the war has started, victory is almost a certainty. Though there is one minor problem that could endanger our plans: N. If his resolve fails, he could use Zekrom against us and all could come to nothing..."

"Don't worry," said Diego. "His weakness just now was simply the result of a slightly poor word-choice on your part. Talking about 'war', I mean. I taught him war was humanity's worst flaw; if you had used a different word he probably wouldn't have made such trouble."

"Are you certain of that?"

"Of course. N is nothing more than a tool, created by you and fine-tuned and perfected by me. Like any other tool, he will do what he was made for."

"I'm glad you're so sure," said Ghetsis. "But what about the Vaporeon? She sounds like she is a bad influence on him. Leaving N alone with her seems like a large risk to take."

"The Vaporeon? She is just a stupid little girl who I convinced to join us because her boyfriend is on the other side, and I don't like him. I rightly thought getting her to join us would lead to hilarious results. They nearly killed each other in a hilarious meltdown of their relationship, it was amazing. But now they seem to have settled their differences, and her resolve to separate humans and pokémon is not nearly as strong as it was. I don't think she'll be on our side much longer, so I'll make sure she doesn't influence N."

Ghetsis nodded. "Get rid of her today. The battle will make for an excellent cover, and keeping her alive is too great a risk."

Diego grinned at the thought of how Boreas would feel after he got rid of her. "I will. I'll do it out of N's vicinity and claim it was the trainers who killed her. That should definitely strengthen his resolve to continue until the very end, even if it were weakened."

Ghetsis grinned. "Solving one problem with the other. Very good, I'm glad to see my trust in you is not misplaced. Good luck, Diego."

"Thank you, my friend. But I won't need luck."

–

As Boreas dodged and parried Ice Beams, he remembered another cave much like this one, except blazing hot and filled with flames rather than ice-cold. He had been just a little Eevee cub at the time, fighting in terror against the infinitely more powerful pokémon of Sage Rood who were trying to burn him to a crisp. He looked up at the ceiling and grinned slyly.

He parried a few more Ice Beams as his opponent followed him into the higher part of the cave, but kept retreating to lure his opponent right where he wanted her. She began creating another Blizzard, so Boreas used Ice Beam on a point seven metres above her, hitting a big icicle that hung from the roof. Boreas sprinted to his opponent as it fell. The impact interrupted her Blizzard and dissipated it immediately, so Boreas had a chance to pounce her.

He scratched and bit at his opponent, determined not to give her even a single moment to counter-attack him. But she still managed to, hitting him with an Ice Beam that felt like a knife of ice carving into his flesh. Powerful, ice-cold winds blew around them as they struggled. Boreas tried to control the air around them, because his opponent was trying to make another Blizzard. They fought both physically and using their icy powers, but while Boreas was at the moment at an advantage in the physical fight, he was rapidly losing control of the air around them, which blew faster and colder and attacked him. He grabbed his opponent and jumped back, letting her go right where he had stood before as he jumped out of the Blizzard, while at the same time suddenly turning his own control of the winds around, intensifying them instead of lulling them down, so his opponent was suddenly caught in the middle of her own Blizzard. She tried to calm the roaring snowstorm down, but while Boreas couldn't yet start one for himself, he could intensify it now that it was there. By the time his opponent managed to calm the Blizzard down, she was lying on the ground, covered in ice and shivering heavily. Brycen returned his Glaceon to her pokéball. "You have done-"

At that moment, an explosion rocked Icirrus.

–

AUTHOR'S NOTES: So ends part seven, which was easily the calmest and most restful part of the story. After all, it came right off the back of the super-dark part six, so both the characters, the readers, and me needed a well-deserved break. Well, that break is over now; next chapter starts Part Eight: By Inferno's Light. It'll also have been 25 chapters since Boreas and Diego first fought in chapter 25, so it's about time they had a rematch.

I think, if Nintendo and Gamefreak ever randomly contacted me to write a movie trilogy based on this story, that this would be the end of the second movie. The first one would probably end with Boreas evolving.

Thanks to TrueBolt for the name 'Frost Concussion' for Boreas' parrying move.

FEEDBACK: Guardian54: Q: I don't think "shan't" would be in Octa's dictionary, he's supposed to be high-class and have impeccable grammar.

A: Is there something wrong with 'shan't' as contraction that I'm not aware of? (I'm not a native English speaker, so sometimes things like that can slip by me)

Ghost of Anonymous Past: Q: do I have permission to draw some of these characters?

A: Yes. You and everyone else; I'd be happy and honoured if anyone drew them; artistic talent not required.

The Bulbafinatic: Q: ...Gods? ...Oh. Ignore me.

A: Just an expression; it seems to come more natural to me than the singular "God" (Probably to do with not believing in any and the singular pointing to a specific one).

Q: You said you wanted a new summary?

A: For now, I've decided to go with a short summary of the newest chapter for the summary.

Q: Selene is perfect for comic relief. Invisible nomes tying tangerines to her feet... weird. But funny!

A: Good to hear you thought it was funny.

Q: I realize yet again that Black has only five Pokémon on hand now. He still needs a sixth one. Who will it be?

A: You'll see soon. I'm not going to tell you, but I can offer some hints: it's a character we've already met. In fact, a character who we first met in the very first part, so we've known that character for a long time now. Yet it's someone you probably weren't expecting to join the team, and with good reason. Now I really should stop giving hints, before they become spoilers.

Q: Think they'll make a Pokémon Gray version? With Kyurem as the game's mascot?

A: I'm 90% sure. That other 10% comes from gen II randomly having Crystal after Gold and Silver (instead of the much more logical Platinum, Copper, or Bronze), and having Suicune instead of the more logical Celebi as its mascot. If they decide to do something as random as that again, we might get Brown Version with Stunfisk as its mascot for all I know.

Q: And will Kyurem make an appearance in your story?

A: Hehe... Yes, it will. That's all I'll say for now.

Sir Raymond Quaza: Q: One of Lucius's main motives for hunting Team Plasma is Capella's death. And at her "funeral", he described her as "good and kind", which is sky-high praise coming from Lucius. Did our favorite (yes, I really like Lucius) Houndoom have any romantic or friendly feelings towards Capella?

A: Yes, he liked her a lot. I don't think he was in love with her, but he certainly liked her a lot and considered her a friend.

TrueBolt: Q: I noticed some coments on you'r drawings and agree that they are somewhat... simple. I do have an idea for geting som artwork: ask. I personaly (before it was mentioned) cosiderd makeing some art from you'r story, but I have one problem with drawing. I can't draw 3D. I can draw totaly awsome 2D drawings, but I cant draw a figure standing faceing away or tward me, and I cant draw scenery worth a flip. However, my sister has no such restraints. There are many art sights for people to post art that they drew, AND ask for things to be drawn. Other artists, if they like the idea, take the chalange and make masterpieces to compare. Quite entertaining for people like my sister. However, I know that the artwork is not the focal point of this masterpiece at the moment, but mabey consider persuing some art requests on you'r off-off time.

A: Hmm, well, that sounds like a great idea. Any links to one of these art sites (replace the periods with the word 'dot' so the spamfilter doesn't block your comment)? Also, I don't mind it if you're not very good, I'd be honoured to accept drawings based on my stories.

Q: Also, (and I have no idea how you would go about diong this) I personaly think that you should publish this book when it is finished. I do have one idea: publish it as an ebook with B&N. ESPECIALY if it was a free ebook, it would sell a lot of copies I think. I have no way to prove this, and it may very well be a waste of time and is mostly for future reference.

A: Unfortunately that is impossible, as it would be a copyright violation. Technically it already is, but it's considered okay as long as no-one makes any money off it (until a modified version of the SOPA bill passes, that is. Obviously the current one is never going to pass with this immense backlash, but a slightly weakened version will probably pass eventually when people have their guard down because they think it was defeated). But by publishing, money would be made using it, and trouble would follow as surely as it would follow opening the window on the ISS. But thanks for the confidence.

Q: Now that that is out of the way, this chapter was an enlightenment for me as I had no idea that Octa felt anything for Toxica. Once anain, that is me personaly and is likley contrary to most other readers.

A: Actually, it seems most people didn't expect it, though a few did.

Q: The fight sceen between Boreas and Octa was very good, and I am pleased to see that Boreas is learning to hold his emotions in chech somewhat.

A: Yes, growing up and beign with Octa and learning from his mistakes is finally paying off, if only slightly.

Q: The image you gave of th mountains was amasing! I could picture everything, and you'r words painted an epic picture for my mind. You are quite good at depicting suroundings but dont go so far into them that the reader gets bord hearing every little microscopic detail about everything, and I comend you for it.

A: I'm glad you liked the description; I've been lacking in it a bit. But don't worry, I'm not Tolkien and I shan't make my descriptions too long. (No offence to anyone who likes Tolkien's writing. I like it a lot too, and the descriptions add such a nice atmosphere and background; I just think he overdoes them too much)

Q: Aside from the fact that I can't wrap my mind around the idea of not forgiving eachother as some of the characters do, (because I personaly have a hard time NOT forgiveing people for some reason)

A: Well, presumably (and I humbly apologise if I'm wrong here) no-one has ever done something incredibly horrible to you. Likely the worst thing someone has ever done to you is dump you, or steal something, or embarrass you horribly. Bad though these things may seem, they are all mainly temporary troubles, and the damage can be reversed. But consider that Boreas has already had two friends who were deliberately killed to death, one of whom he was very close to. They'll never come back; their deaths are irreversible. Considering Aqua joined the very people who did that (as well as hurt him very much), it's not all that strange it took him a long time to forgive her. And Diego basically tortured him at the Ferris Wheel (and it would've taken _six_ times as long if Selene hadn't been there to rescue him), _and_ he's a very important part of Team Plasma. You can hardly expect Boreas to forgive him. Now, as for Boreas and Octa sometimes taking a long time to forgive each other: consider that Octa is very proud, which makes forgiving hard for him, and Boreas is rather emotional, so he often stays angry with Octa for a long time (Though they'd never _stay_ mad at each other forever and break their friendship; they like each other too much for that). Also, the last time they took a long time to forgive each other their moods were also deeply affected by Capella's recent demise.

Q: the only thing that bugs me about this story is that THE REST OF IT IS"NT AVAILABLE FOR ME TO READ RIGHT NOW!

A: Cheers, that's an incredible thing to hear.

Q: I highly sugjest you dont break both arms or especialy die any time soon becaus not only would that suck for you, but it would also suck for all you fans who hang on every word you write. Be encouraged. There is likley not another living person who could compleat this story with the finess you can.

A: Thank you. I think I will take your advice and try not to break my arms or die. I was planning to, but now I see how that would be a bad idea.

Q: You are one in a million.

A: THERE ARE SIX AND A HALF THOUSAND OF ME ON THIS PLANET? Why wasn't I ever told before? (:-P)

Arcane1ManaX: Q: It took me three days to read all of the chapters up till now.

It took me two to read through the last book in the Inheritance Cycle (saga, what ever he's calling it now.)

I think that's a testament to your writing abilities. I'm an incredibly quick and comprehensive reader, I can read through four novels without causing any kind of discombobulation to my brain, and still have enough computing power to continue with my day.

A: You certainly are a fast reader. I think I'm at a hundred and fifty thousand words now, not counting annotations, so that's about 250 pages.

Q: Now, with your nice, lengthy, girthy, all round huge, story, I can still read and understand it just fine, I just find it having more to it than an actual published novel.

A: I can't thank you (and other commenters) enough for saying such kind things to me. You'll all make me very spoiled like this.

Q: But I digress. I love the story, love your antagonists, and your protagonists. You've put your characters through a rough ride, so don't end it like Paolini ended his. If you aren't familiar with the series, just know that I, or rather, we, don't want to see a disappointing ending to an astounding story.

A: I only read the first Inheritance book, so I don't know how it ended. But I think (hope) you'll like the ending. I was originally going to do it much like the game's ending, but I've since altered my planning for parts ten and eleven considerably, and now the ending will diverge heavily from the game (not saying in what ways), and be very epic and good, at least I hope so.

UNKNOWN: Q: Um, is 'calmth' a word?

A: It is now.

Q: Wow, Lucius had what, like, one line in this chapter? I could get used to this.

A: I think he's had no lines at all in far too many chapters.

Q: Wow, just WOWER! (yes, I'm aware 'wower' isn't a word. Just for emotional effect) Boreas actually gave Octa a lecture! I guess he's good at handling everything, except for HIS OWN feelings! They must be even now.

A: It's surprising how many people have great advice, but don't apply that advice to themselves. Then again, when has Octa ever given Boreas such great advice on relationships? That'd be like the blind leading the people who need glasses. Considering Boreas' relationship with Aqua has just taken a big turn for the better, he's probably more knowledgeable than Octa at the moment.

Glaceon34: Q: what! if I remember correctly when they make up it is boreas who suggest they run off together!

A: Well, he didn't really mean running off permanently. He meant more like: let's spend some time together away from everyone else and we'll see whether we ever return. But later he decided that he really needed to finish all this Team Plasma business, so he wanted to return.

Q: Oh Aqua, just wait until you see Delgo 's true face.

A: She'll see it soon.


	50. Day of the Dragons

Part Eight: By Inferno's Light

Chapter Fifty: Day of the Dragons

Icirrus' streets were full of surprised and frightened people and pokémon who had gone outside to gawk at Dragonspiral Tower, now surrounded by a veil of smoke. "Go back into your homes," commanded Brycen as he and Black rapidly made their way to the other side of town. "Close your doors and windows, but don't panic. You will be alerted if there is any danger to you."

Among the bewildered people of Icirrus, Boreas was glad to recognise a curvy blonde girl and a thin, black-haired boy. "Black!" said Bianca as she recognised his trainer. "What's going on?"

"Bianca, Cheren," Black greeted them. "We don't know, I'm following Brycen to help him deal with whatever it is. And if that is what I think it is, we could really use your help. Come on."

Cheren grinned. "I'll gladly come with you and show both you and the Gym Leader how powerful I have become! I may have lagged behind you for quite a while, but I've gotten so much stronger in that time."

Black grinned. "Glad to hear it, you'll need some extra power to defeat me."

But Bianca was hesitating. "Um... I-it might be very dangerous... That explosion and all that smoke it made are giving me a very bad feeling..."

Cheren sighed. "Not _this_ again. If you're going to be like that again..."

"Like what?" asked Bianca, angrily.

"Like a co-"

"Bianca," Black tactically interrupted Cheren, "if you don't dare, you don't have to come with us. But we could really use your help. You're much stronger than you think."

"You- you think so?"

"I'm sure of it. You defeated Skyla, didn't you?"

"Well, yes..."

"She was very powerful. I could barely defeat her myself. You're strong, Bianca. And I'm sure your pokémon trust you. How is Oshy?"

"Great! He evolved to a Samurott a few days ago!" Bianca said happily. "I just returned my team to their pokéballs to protect them from dangerous things that might happen. I'll let them out again! Go, Oshy, Puppy, Munny, Pansy, and Wicky!"

Bianca's entire team; Samurott, Herdier, Musharna, Simisear, and Lampent appeared from their pokéballs as Bianca released them. Black's pokémon cheerfully greeted Bianca's, whom they hadn't seen since Nimbasa. Toxica seemed scared of Wicky the Lampent, while Selene seemed very interested in her.

"Honestly, Bianca," sneered Cheren, "what's the point of giving your pokémon nicknames if you're going to be that unoriginal with them? Just don't bother with nicknames, like me."

Brycen had finished instructing the citizens, so Black and his friends followed him to Dragonspiral Tower while Cheren too released his team; Emboar, Liepard, Unfezant, Simisage, and Boldore.

Boreas nudged Octa. "Hey, looks like Bianca and Cheren have already evolved their starters fully. Looks like _someone_ has spent too much time worrying and not enough time training."

"Be quiet," said Octa with an annoyed frown.

By the time they reached Dragonspiral Tower, much of the smoke had already cleared, showing that a great hole had been blasted in the tower's base, like an entrance into the otherwise closed-off tower. They entered through the hole and found themselves in a large, semi-lit hall decorated with amazing statues and with bizarre, complex architecture. But the most important detail about the hall was the three humans and eighteen pokémon that surrounded the entrance. Boreas ignited in fury as he saw the murderers of Capella to the left; Ryoku the bearded skeleton in the green robes who had given the order, Tangrowth who had held her so she couldn't escape, Cradily who had fired the Hyper Beam that killed her, Lilligant who had distracted them so much Tangrowth had been able to sneak up on them, and their other companions Exeggcutor, Ferrothorn, and Shiftry. To the right Giallo, who looked a bit like a giant, moustached grapefruit in his yellow robes, stood with six powerful steel-types: Klinklang, Magnezone, Scizor, Lucario, Bastiodon, and, coiled up behind them and looking over them with metallic malevolence, an enormous Steelix. Finally, between them, stood Ghetsis with his team. It didn't seem he specialised in any type: he had Escavalier, Spiritomb, Bouffalant, Seismitoad, Eelektross, and, inside a standing swirl of water that was maintained solely by its own powers, a Kingdra. All twenty-one were grinning malevolently.

"Well, well," spoke Ghetsis. "If it isn't the Gym Leader, Brycen; and Black."

"Ghetsis," Black spat, "what's Team Plasma doing here?"

"Didn't N tell you yet, boy?" Ghetsis laughed. "We're here to capture Zekrom! N is at the top of the tower right now, resurrecting it from the Dark Stone. And we are here for two reasons: first to prevent anyone from interfering with him, and secondly: to give all of you one last chance to liberate your pokémon."

"You know the answer to that, Ghetsis," snapped Black.

Toxica gasped. "This is it. The big battle Golurk talked about... Everything depends on us now; if we lose this, the world'll be Team Plasma's oyster, but if we win, we can stop them forever!"

Their opponents grinned even more malevolently. "Indeed I do," said Ghetsis. "Which is why we prepared a little surprise for you. Giallo, if you please?"

"Osmio," the fat Sage commanded his Steelix, "Screech!"

The monstrously huge metal snake opened its maw and emitted a sound like a quadrillion nails all scraping over chalkboards. Most of those present clutched their ears in pain. A moment after the Steelix stopped screeching, Bianca, who was the farthest to the back of all of them and still at the door, shouted: "They're attacking from behind! Dozens of grunts outside!"

Boreas cursed as he saw she was right: they were completely surrounded, Sages on one side and grunts on the other. Bianca and her pokémon turned around to defend against the grunts outside. "I'm sure you could probably defeat them," Ghetsis grinned, "but that'd take time. Meanwhile, they nicely keep you all here so we can finally get rid of you."

Terror struck Boreas like a mallet. They were trapped and would certainly die now. A single Sage was powerful enough, but the thought of taking on three at once seemed like suicide. Especially with Giallo's steel-types, and Ghetsis' pokémon having barely any weakness... He realised, at least, that he had figured out Ghetsis' speciality: pokémon with little or no weaknesses. That only made it worse: Plasma had a type advantage, outnumbered them, outflanked them, and they were just plain more powerful. Realising this was the day he was going to die, he looked Octa in the eyes, even more fearful to think that his best friend would die here as well. But he didn't see panic in Octa's eyes, but acceptance.

"I'm glad to die fighting side-by-side with a friend, my dear fellow," said Octa with a smile that reminded Boreas of the smile Capella had given him before she sacrificed herself.

"W-well, I'd rather not die," Boreas responded. "But you're right, if I have to, it might as well be fighting side-by-side with you."

At that moment, all hell broke loose as the Sages attacked. The entire hall was an intense flurry of furious battle. Boreas immediately had to parry several attacks and dodge some others. Brycen's pokémon were using Blizzards to attack the opponents, so Boreas chipped in and helped make the air colder and blow harder. He saw Eelektross fire off a beam of electricity, and barely managed to parry it before it reached Octa's head. Octa had no time to thank him, as he was engaged in a blazing-fast battle with Shiftry and Escavalier. Boreas wished to help him, but he barely had a moment to spare to Ice Beam one of Octa's opponents because Lucario attacked him.

–

"Finally," whispered N. "The Dark stone... Finally I will be friends with Zekrom and make my perfect world a reality... I have waited so long for this moment..."

The tower's uppermost room was also the most magnificent one. There were hundreds of statues of dragon-types; Diego recognised Dratini, Zweilous, Druddigon, Salamence, and many more; though there were also dragon statues he didn't recognise at all. And in the centre of the room was the Dark Stone, which was now brimming with energy as N touched it. The sounds of the fierce battle in the tower's base resounded even here.

"Excellent," he smiled. "At last the world will be as it should be. Go on, release Zekrom!"

N held the Dark Stone in his hands and looked deep into it, and a pulse of power emanated from the stone, rocking the entire tower. "It'll take a while..." said N. "I need to communicate to Zekrom inside and make it recognise me as the hero. It could take quite long."

"Hmm, that sounds dangerous; you could be disturbed by our enemies. I think I should go downstairs to make sure no-one gets past the Sages. Aqua, why don't you join me?"

"Sure," she said as she followed him. Diego smirked, seeing the perfect opportunity to kill the stupid little traitor. He let her go in front with a courteous gesture, though he really did it so he could find the perfect moment to end her life while at the same time enjoying the view of her rear. As they walked through the maze of rooms that the top of the tower was, Diego reflected things really seemed to be going his way. In an hour, N would have captured Zekrom. Then soon, he would bring Ghetsis' plan to completion without realising it. They came into a large room where both the white and the black spiral staircase emerged. Each of the staircases was very broad, about five metres wide, and its stairs were made of marble that gleamed even after all these centuries. The staircases rotated around each other widely, each forming five full circles before they reached the tower's base. Considering the staircases and the walls around them were all that held the top of the tower up, they had to be very strong.

As they entered the long, white spiral staircase leading down, Diego wondered if he should just do it right here and beat Aqua to death on the stairs. Maybe throw her off them to see how far she'd roll? But, he realised it would be so much more fun to wait and kill her in front of Boreas. His grin became even wider as he imagined the look on the smug little Glaceon's face as he saw his great love die before his eyes... Diego could barely keep his laughter in at the thought that he would get to see his soul shatter before his very eyes. It would be hilarious, that was certain. It had already been so hilarious last time...

He remembered the day he had first seen the lone Vaporeon crying by the river while he was looking for pokémon to join N. Realising she would never be attracted to a Zoroark, and was more likely to be terrified of him, he had quickly used his illusion to mask himself as a Jolteon. He had started talking to her, to try and convince her to join N, and more importantly, to seduce her. When he had discovered, to his great surprise, that he had by chance run into Boreas' girlfriend his resolve to do both of those things had only increased, of course, realising how hilarious the results would be when Boreas found out. Unfortunately, he had only been half-successful. While he had convinced her to join Team Plasma, he had never managed to convince her to mate with him. Which was a shame, as that would probably have been even more crushing to Boreas, and of course it would've been quite fun to do. But it was too late now anyway; at least he would get to kill her before Boreas' eyes; that more or less made up for it.

–

Boreas jumped out of the way of Steelix's tail, which came crashing down like an avalanche of metal. The ground trembled when it was hit by the mighty steel-type. Boreas saw his chance and jumped on the metal tail, hoping Octa would realise he wasn't covering his back any more. The enormous metal snake lifted its tail back up, taking Boreas with it. He let go the moment it started slowing down, launching himself over the enemies. He landed hard on the ground behind them, but Steelix turned around before he could attack the Sages. The mighty steel-type wrapped its metallic body around him. He tried to attack it, but no attack of his stood any chance of harming the gargantuan metal-coated monstrosity. The edges of its steel armour sharply cut into his flesh as it squeezed tighter; he was being squeezed so hard he heard his bones creak, about to snap under the immense force. It wasn't even using any of its strength at all; the moment it'd do so, Boreas knew his bones would be ground to dust and his flesh and blood would be nothing more than a disgusting smudge on its armour. Steelix's enormous, grinning head looked down malevolently. It was hit by a few attacks, but nothing came even close to hurting it.

Suddenly an intense inferno of flames washed over Steelix, instantly heating its conductive metal armour up to temperatures so high it glowed red. Boreas screamed in pain as the steel touching him was baking his skin, but Steelix, who was of course surrounded by that same metal, was in so much more pain. It squirmed in agony and let Boreas go as it rushed for its ally Kingdra, desperate to get cooled down by its water. Boreas stood up, though his skin hurt badly wherever it had touched the Steelix and he felt bruised by its crushing grip. He looked up and squinted as he looked straight into the Sun, which had somehow entered the tower. But its light dimmed, and he saw it was it was not the Sun but a large, furry moth with six orange wings. "A Volcarona?" he said in wonder.

"Team Plasma!" said Champion Alder, who had just entered the tower together with Bianca, presumably having driven off the grunts outside. "That's enough. I will not let you continue this and break all the wonderful friendships between humans and pokémon!"

"Ah, Champion Aldel," said Ryoku over the sounds of battle. "You are a powerful trainer, but so are we. You stand no chance against the three of us."

Boreas saw Ryoku was right: Alder's pokémon seemed about as powerful as those of the Sages. His Bouffalant had locked horns with Ghetsis', both struggling to defeat the other mighty beast. His Volcarona flew through the hall, unleashing its blazing infernos on its enemies. Alder's other pokémon, a Druddigon, an Accelgor, a Vanilluxe, and an Escavalier, joined the battle as well. But there were only six of them, while the Sages had eighteen pokémon of similar strength. And the other pokémon, including Boreas, on their side were clearly less powerful than the Sages'. "Ha!" shouted Black. "With Alder here and your grunts gone, we outnumber you!"

"Black!" Bianca yelped as she told her pokémon to retreat from the battle and turn around again. "the grunts are back! I can hold them off, but there's a lot of them outside!"

"We can still win this, and end all this right now!" Black said determinedly.

"No," Alder stated. "They're only trying to keep us away from N! Black, take your pokémon and go to the top as fast as you can! I'll take your place in the battle, and I'll try to create an opening for you!"

Alder's powerful pokémon all attacked Magnezone, Bastiodon and Spiritomb. Their line reformed, and Octa, Toxica, and Black managed to sprint through, joining Boreas on the other side. But Lucius nor Selene was anywhere to be seen as the line closed again. That is, until Lucius suddenly made a great jump over Seismitoad, a Honchkrow holding on to his horns and flapping her wings as fast as she could to extend his jump. He laughed as he landed and gave the Honchkrow a friendly smile. "Ha, beautiful, you crazy bird! Who'd have thought you'd ever be good for something?"

"Who indeed?" Selene asked, in a voice similar, but somewhat deeper than her old one. "And who'd have thought _you_'d ever give a compliment, if a backhanded one?"

As they ran away from the battlefield, up the staircase and through various corridors and chambers, Black and his other pokémon congratulated Selene on evolving. Lucius said, still smiling: "Well, who'd ever have thought you'd stop looking like a feather duster?" he said, referencing Selene's suddenly uncharacteristically well-kept and organised feathers. "Or that you'd learn to fly better than a chicken?"

"Well, who'd have thought you- Hey, look, it's Boreas' friend Aqua!"

Terribly mixed feelings filled Boreas as the person he loved most and the person he hated most stood next to each other, awaiting them and guarding the wide double spiral stair that led up. Suddenly the entire towered trembled with intense electric power. "Boreas!" Aqua yelped in surprise. "I didn't know you were here!"

Boreas smiled. "Fancy meeting each other again so soon, my love." He said to the others: "Take the stairs; Toxica and I will fight Diego and Aqua here."

"Me?" Toxica yelped. "But I'm supposed to do something really important in this battle!"

"Look," Boreas explained as the other rushed up the white stairs, "I can't fight Aqua, no matter what. Octa is too powerful and too important a team member to leave down here; Black will need him upstairs. Lucius is weak to water. That leaves you or Selene, so- ARGH!" While explaining, Diego had suddenly rushed forward and slashed at his flank with his sharp claws.

"Hey!" snapped Aqua. "That's not fair! Let him finish speaking and be ready to fight you!"

"Now where's the fun in that?" said Diego as he tried to kick Boreas, who had already jumped away and Ice Beamed his loins. "Argh! I'll break every bone in your body for that!" Diego howled.

"You'll have to catch me first!" Boreas said as he rushed up the wide, spiralling black staircase to put some distance between himself and the enraged Zoroark. His enemy's heavy footfalls were very close behind him, so he suddenly jumped to the side instead of climbing on, making Diego suddenly trip and land hard with his face on one of the stairs. Seeing his chance, Boreas realised he could win this right now; he jumped on Diego's back, intending to chill his brain down with a continuous Ice Beam to the head and make him faint instantly like that. But he hadn't counted on the Zoroark's phenomenal strength: he was launched off his back as Diego jumped to his feet. He hit the side of the staircase hard, plummeted three metres down, landed painfully hard on the stairs, bounced off due to his great momentum, and landed back in the hall as a heap of bruised, groaning Glaceon.

"Are you alright?" the two startled females, who were having a much more civil duel in the hall, asked.

"Argh, I'm fine..." Boreas groaned as he managed to get back to his feet. The stone stairs had scraped several patches of skin off when he had bounced on them, and he'd probably get deep bruises from them, but at least he hadn't broken anything.

"You won't be for much longer!" Diego's voice snapped out of the staircase. "Come here and let me finish this!"

Ignited in fury, Boreas rushed up the stairs, seeing Diego waiting for him after half a rotation. He Ice Beamed the Zoroark immediately, aiming once again for his vulnerables. But Diego was expecting it this time, dived under the Ice Beam, and landed on top of Boreas. The stairs were painfully digging into his back as eighty kilos of Zoroark pressed on the other side. Diego grabbed his head and smashed it into the stairs with an impact that resounded through Boreas in pain. His vision went all kinds of colours and rotated madly; he heard bizarre, otherworldly noises as he felt blood dripping down his neck. He was very nauseous and dizzy, and in severe pain. But at least Diego got off him. After a while, his senses returned to normal, though he still lay on the stairs, panting in pain.

"So," Diego spoke. "If you're done already, maybe I should find another nice place to hang you up?"

"Argh," Boreas groaned as he got up, momentarily feeling the back of his head. It was swollen and bleeding, but at least it didn't feel as if his skull was broken. "You really are a bastard, Diego. I had almost forgotten that. Thanks for reminding me."

Diego, who was standing higher on the stairs, made a mocking bow. "My pleasure."

Boreas Ice Beamed a point a bit above his enemy's head, so that when he got up from the bow it hit him right in the throat. He collapsed, gargling and clutching his throat. Boreas rushed over as quickly as he could and pounced his opponent, digging his claws into the much larger fox's flesh. He quickly charged up another Ice Beam to end both the fight and Diego's life, when a force like a battering ram hit his stomach as Diego punched him there, launching him into the air and over his head, landing higher up the stairs. He felt incredibly sick after the punch and the earlier hit to his head, and lost his lunch on the stairs; concerned, but not very surprised to see some blood in it too.

"Grr," Diego growled softly, still clutching his injured throat with one paw and speaking hoarsely. "You realise this doesn't matter at all, don't you? N will soon reawaken Zekrom, and with just three pokémon your captor stands no chance at beating him. All you accomplish here is hurting yourself!"

Boreas fired a double Ice Beam, one of which hit Diego in the chest and left a frozen white trail there that made the Zoroark roar in pain. "And I'm finally giving you some payback for the hours you had me hanging by my tail!"

Diego stormed up the stairs, so Boreas retreated further up them as well, determined to stay out of his much stronger opponent's vicinity. A beam of darkness gathered in Diego's hands and fired at Boreas; he could only barely dodge it. Diego smirked. "I'm sure you think that hanging by your tail was the worst pain you've ever been in. Let me assure you: in a moment I'll far outdo that. I'll begin with breaking all four of your legs, so you can't even run away!" As Diego made a sudden dash up the stairs, Boreas Ice Beamed the stairs in front of him, which were now suddenly were slippery. Diego slipped as soon as he stepped on the frozen stairs. He made a spectacular twist of almost one hundred eighty degrees in the air and landed, face first, on the stairs. He groaned and kept lying there for a while. While Boreas felt a lot like just Ice Beaming his head now and ending the fight, Diego hadn't continued attacking him when he was in a similar state, and the idea of acting less courteous than Diego was not one he fancied. He did continue to retreat up the stairs, to put more distance between him and Diego.

Diego slowly got up; bleeding from his nose and mouth. He spit out two bloody teeth. "You'll beg me to kill you before the end," he said. "I'll make sure of that. I'll tear your every appendage off your body."

"Not if I freeze you to a lump of evil ice before then, you bastard!" Bores roared.

Boreas froze more of the stairs between him and Diego, but the Zoroark jumped over them in a great jump, suddenly standing in front of him. Boreas Ice Beamed Diego's stomach as his enemy slashed at him. At that moment, a massive roar echoed through the tower, which trembled as there was an earthquake, and then the staircase began collapsing.

–

Octa hurried into the majestic, simulacrum-filled chamber of gargantuan, one might even say Brobdingnagian proportions. The simulacri of various pokémon of the dragon-type seemed to have been created by a true master of the arts; their similitude to the pokémon they were based on was quite aesthetically pleasing. Yet the most impressive sight of the entire cavernous hall was the viridian-haired _Homo sapiens _holding a small anthracite-black stone. The intense power emanating from the dark mineral was felt by any creature in the room. Then, with mighty sparks of electricity, the stone floated from N's front limbs and into the air, engorging and taking on a draconic shape. Finally, Zekrom roared and the entire tower shook on its foundations. Octa could distinctly hear the sound of falling debris below him and fervently hoped the tower wasn't about to collapse and that his dear friends Boreas and Toxica hadn't been hurt or killed by the debris.

Neither N nor Zekrom moved, engaged in telepathic conversation. Octa realised what needed to be done. "We need to stop them, right now! We can still win this if we do!"

But as they rushed to N, his team blocked the way, a pokémon made up of two large metal gears blocking his way as he drew his Leaf Blade.

–

Boreas focussed on not getting hit by the falling stones. The intense tremors had taken their toll on the tower's bizarre architecture: the two staircases that spiralled around each other were rapidly losing integrity. Large parts of the roof had caved onto the stairs and the walls had mostly fallen off, pretty much leaving Boreas on a spiral staircase in the open air now; with the ground very far beneath and a very heavy stone top above him that looked less and less supported by the two spiralling stairs. Fortunately the white semi-tower that contained a staircase had remained more or less intact; it was mainly the black one that was deteriorating fast. The Sun was setting in the valley between the mountains, colouring everything red. Suddenly something very heavy fell on top of him and crushed him into the stairs; but it wasn't a part of the ceiling but Diego.

"You bastard! Don't you see we have better things to do than fight right now? We need to get the hell away from here before these stairs collapse too, or the tower collapses, or the parts of the stairs above us collapse and fall on- gak!"

Diego's powerful claw grabbed him around his neck, lifting him up by it. "First I'm going to end this. Any last words before I throw you off the tower?"

Boreas tried to articulate: "Yes: I learned Ice Beam," but the powerful hold Diego had around his neck prevented that. Instead he just fired an Ice Beam from his forehead to Diego's, making the Zoroark curse in pain and drop him, nearly off the tower. Boreas managed to stay on the stairs and jumped back as Diego threw his crushing weight almost on top of him. But, while he managed to avoid Diego falling on top of him again, he couldn't avoid Diego grabbing one of his hind paws. He was lifted off his feet by the larger fox, who punched him in the face, making him bleed and feel like he had been run over.

"You're a very annoying opponent!" Diego roared. "This will stop you from running away!"

He swung Boreas over the side of the stairs, but kept holding him by his right rear leg. He laid it over the edge of the stairs, above Boreas so he couldn't see what was going on. But then he felt the pressure of Diego's large foot on his shin and realised with terror what he was about to do. "Please, don't!"

Boreas felt the pressure lift and closed his eyes in anticipation of the pain. The Diego's foot came down with great force. Boreas screamed in agony as the bones in his leg broke like twigs under the great impact as two loud snapping sounds sounded. He moaned in pain as Diego lifted him back up by his broken leg. He could barely even see, so overwhelmed was he by the pain. He was aware Diego changed his grab to his throat again. He tried to Ice Beam the cruel beast, but the pain just overwhelmed him and made that impossible. "Oh, did that hurt you?" Diego whispered. "You know, last time we fought, you did something quite painful to me too. Let me show you."

Boreas howled in pain as a crushing impact hit his loins. "I wonder, what hurt more? That or the leg? Maybe I should let you try it again so you can be sure." Another crushing impact send a wave of torturous, nauseating agony through Boreas' body. "Oh dear. I think if I do that a few more times you'll have to disappoint Aqua next time you two get together. Then again, you'll never get together, because I'm about to kill you both..."

"B-both?" Boreas groaned as he tried to focus on his enemy and not his pain.

"Yes..." Diego grinned. "In fact, I might kill her first. I'm having far too much fun to end your suffering right now. Mind the drop!" He tossed Boreas over the edge of the spiralling staircase. He landed with a very painful impact on the stairs one rotation and about seven metres lower, rolling down them still further. He tried to get up, to try to fight Diego, but he was in so terribly much pain that it overwhelmed his entire nervous system. After a while, he heard Diego's footsteps as he had walked down the entire rotation of the staircase. "Do you know what's so great about this?"

"Argh... We're both getting our cardio in for today?" Boreas groaned.

"I get to do my duty to Team Plasma _and_ have enormous fun in the process." Boreas felt even more pain as a kick like a sledgehammer broke some of his ribs.

"Leave him alone, you cruel bastard!" said Aqua's furious voice.

Boreas still could barely register what he saw, but his ears worked just fine. "So, you finally show your true loyalties," said Diego.

Suddenly a veil of water surrounded Boreas. "Don't worry, you can breathe it, my love!" said Aqua. "It's Aqua Ring, it'll ease the pain and help cure your wounds!"

Though his instincts told him to hold his breath, he trusted Aqua enough to ignore them and draw a breath of the water. Aqua was right: it filled his lungs even better than air, and his pain was indeed slowly subsiding.

"My true loyalties?" snapped Aqua. "My true loyalties are to him, and also to all pokémon in this world! But not to cruel filth like you! To think I thought of you as my friend!"

Though the Aqua Ring helped, Boreas was still in too much pain to even see properly, and he only heard the sounds of fighting. He longed to help Aqua and to save her from whatever death Diego had planned for her, but his pain took so long to lessen... But finally he thought it had healed enough that he might try standing on his good legs. Though it was very painful, he did manage it and stepped out of the Aqua Veil, only to see Diego just winning the battle by picking Aqua up and holding one paw at her neck and one at her hip. He had several wounds that were clearly burns from hot water.

"Don't take another step, Boreas, or I'll break her. And no more of your boiling water please, gorgeous, unless you want me to snap you like a twig."

Boreas had no choice. "Diego, don't hurt her, please! Do to me what you want, but let her go! I'll kill you if you kill her!"

"You're in no position to make threats. I will do to you what I want, yes. But first I'll do to her what I want."

"You're a monster!" said Aqua, furiously. "I've been an idiot not to see it!"

"Perhaps," Diego said with a chilling grin. "But now it's too late. I'm going to kill you, Aqua. And then I'll kill your lovey-dovey. But, I'll make you a deal: you can enjoy the view from up here for a bit longer before I kill you, if you kiss me."

Aqua spat in his face. "So that's how deep your depravity goes. AAA!" she screamed in pain as Diego bent her spine so far backwards it creaked.

"That was not very nice of you. And don't worry, I'm merely curious, not really interested in anything more after a kiss. You might as well indulge my curiosity and live a bit longer."

"Aqua!" Boreas desperately said. "Please, do it!"

Perhaps picking up on the desperate idea in his voice, Aqua said: "Fine. Let's get it over with, you murderer."

Diego eased the pressure on Aqua's spine and brought his face to hers. "Try anything, and I kill you."

As Diego kissed Aqua, his attention wasn't on Boreas. Boreas picked up a large piece of debris, aimed it for Diego's head, and threw it. But at that moment, Diego broke the kiss off and saw the rock flying to his head. As Boreas screamed in horror, he bent Aqua's spine back. Several noises of something breaking hurt Boreas far more than anything else Diego had done. As the rock hit Diego's face and he staggered back, Aqua's limp body, twisted in a bizarre angle, fell on the stairs. Roaring in fury, Boreas ran up the stairs on three legs, all pain forgotten as he simply wanted to kill Diego in vengeance. He pounced the fallen Zoroark and Ice Beamed him in the head, intending to keep going until Diego died. But Diego grabbed his throat once again, stopping the Ice Beam, and lifted him up, staring at him with a demonic grin once more.

"This is the end of the road, Boreas. I'll send you after Aqua right now."

"Let him go!" a new voice commanded. Boreas and Diego both looked in surprise at the lower parts of the stairs, where a Flareon, his collar flaring fierily with anger, stood. "Let. Him. GO!"

"And who might you be?" Diego sneered. "Another guest to my little party here?"

The Flareon pounced Diego, who was so surprised he dropped Boreas, who landed on the stairs. Confused, bewildered thoughts raged through Boreas' mind as he watched the Flareon fight his arch-enemy who had just murdered Aqua. While he knew Flareons were very strong, actually seeing one display similar strength to the much larger Diego in battle was quite amazing. Boreas enjoyed every attack the Flareon used on Diego and every howl of pain from the Zoroark.

"Bo... Boreas..." he heard Aqua whisper. He rushed to her immediately.

"Aqua... You're still alive? I-I'll get Nurse Ebola! Right now! I will-"

"No..." Aqua whispered with tears in her beautiful eyes. "Boreas, it's too late. Don't leave me... Please, I don't want to die alone..."

Boreas heard a scream of pain and saw Diego run up the stairs while the Flareon pursued. "No, let him go!" Boreas yelled. "Please, run down and get the nurse!"

The Flareon stopped and ran down. "Of course!" he exclaimed. "I'll get her right away!"

Boreas couldn't help his curiosity as he thought he recognised someone familiar in the Flareon's face as he passed by. "Wh-who are you anyway?" Boreas exclaimed as the Flareon passed by.

"Don't you recognise your own brother?" the Flareon laughed. "It's me, Zeph!"

"But..." Boreas stammered as he shouted after the Flareon who was now running down the stairs below him. "I saw you die... How?"

"I'll tell you the whole story later!" the Flareon shouted just before entering the tower's base. "For now, I'll just say I was very lucky to be found by a very skilled Audino who managed to reanimate me!"

"Boreas..." Aqua cried softly. "I... I'm sorry for trusting him... If I hadn't, we could've lived together yet... But now I'm going to die..."

Boreas cried as he softly stroked her finned head. "No, you won't die. Zeph, or whoever he is, will get the nurse... Everything will be alright..."

"No... It's too late..." Aqua said as she closed her eyes.

"No, it's not! Don't close your eyes, stay with me! Don't leave me behind, please! Hang on to life for me!"

Aqua nodded softly as she opened her eyes again. "I'll try... But it won't help... But at least you're with me... I've been alone for so long... I don't want to die alone too. Stay with me until the end... And kiss me, while my lips are still blue..."

Boreas softly kissed her as he cried for her.

–

Octa was ducking underneath his metallic opponent's grinding gears advancing towards him when it happened. After lengthy telepathic communication with N, Zekrom roared and extended its wings as lightning bolts struck. N turned around to the pokémon battling his own pokémon futilely. "What do you think? Do you like the powerful form of the pokémon who appears before and fights beside the hero who will lead the way into the new world? Now Zekrom and I will head to the Pokémon League and defeat the Champion! This will be the last of the battles that hurt pokémon so much. A perfect world for pokémon alone, it will finally be a reality!"

N climbed on Zekrom's back as he returned his pokémon to their pokéballs. "Please!" said Octa. "I implore you not to do this!"

"If you want to stop me," N said to Black as the tower trembled more and more and the roof began caving in, "you must become a hero as well! When Zekrom's counterpart, Reshiram, recognises you, we will finally be even, and then you can try to stop us!"

Zekrom emitted a pulse of power, making the collapsing roof explode outwards instead of falling inwards, and then it flew away. "Damn!" Black cursed. "We could've ended it right here if we had won!" The tower rocked dangerously. "...We'd better get out of this tower now before it collapses..."

They ran through the labyrinth of rooms, which now rocked dangerously as an ominous creaking resounded through the tower. When they reached the room where the two stairs came out, Octa saw to his horror that the black staircase, and its support to the tower with it, had completely collapsed, while the white staircase looked heavily damaged and about to collapse too now that it alone held up the tower. They rushed through the damaged staircase, which was missing its roof and walls for the most part. The tower swayed terrifyingly, as if the enormous, heavy top could come down at any moment. They rushed over the five rotations of the staircase and ended up in the base, where the stairs both ended up. None of the combatants were in the room, and Octa fervently hoped Boreas nor Toxica had been on the black stairs when they collapsed. They rushed down through the base's corridors and entered the hall where the Sages had stopped them. It was empty now, though it bore the marks of the battle. They ran out of the entrance that Team Plasma had blasted and continued running, wanting to put as much distance as possible between them and the tower as possible.

On a small hill nearby, Bianca, Cheren, and Alder had congregated with their pokémon.

"Boreas?" Octa called as he rushed into the group, looking for his friend with a sense of dread. "Boreas?"

But then his heart made a jump of relief as he saw Boreas, who was looking very bruised and roughed up and bloodied and clearly had a broken leg, as well as Toxica. Boreas and a Flareon were watching Nurse Ebola treating Aqua, who was lying there mangled and apparently with a broken back, but still breathing. Boreas embraced him when he joined them.

"My dear fellow, how is she?"

"Nurse Ebola says she has a chance of surviving and recovering..." Boreas sniffed, in tears. "We were so lucky the nurse was already in the tower to help the pokémon hurt in the battle at the entrance... I-I could've lost her otherwise..."

"What happened?"

"Diego happened. To both of us."

Octa looked back to the tower just in time to see it happen: the heavily burdened white staircase snapped at its third rotation. Because the tower was so big, it seemed to fall down in slow-motion. Only then did the sound of the snap reach Octa. The helical stairs ground against each other as the top fell down, the stairs breaking into a myriad pieces and releasing dust. The top rotated slightly as it collapsed, so it reached the base diagonally. Enormous clouds of dust erupted as it did so, obscuring most of Octa's view of the rest of the collapse, but he did hear the infernal sound a second later; a sound like the motions of the Earth itself as Dragonspiral Tower collapsed to a pile of rubble. Octa found himself thoroughly sad to see the end of such an ancient and odd piece of architecture and all the ancient art inside, lost to civilisation forever...

–

At that moment, every television and every radio in Unova was suddenly displaying the same message: "Attention, trainers of Unova. My name is Ghetsis, and I represent Team Plasma. Over the past year, we have endeavoured to make clear to everyone that the way humans treat pokémon is evil. We force them to fight our battles, we force them to do our work, we keep them locked up in little plastic balls... Yet these are intelligent creatures! Every single trainer is guilty of slavery! And it has gone far enough. Team Plasma has shown its good intentions by using only words, never force, to persuade you, and many have indeed seen the light and released your pokémon. I thank those that did. But there are still highly selfish trainers who have refused to release their pokémon, even after we opened their eyes! Seemingly normal people, Gym Leaders, even the Champion! But no more. This is the end. Team Plasma's king has befriended the legendary pokémon Zekrom and he orders you all to liberate your pokémon. We will not allow anyone to continue suppressing them. Team Plasma hereby declares war on everyone owning even a single pokémon. If you continue enslaving them, we will have no mercy on you. I will give every trainer a simple choice: liberate your pokémon, join Team Plasma, or die. Any trainer who doesn't liberate their pokémon will be considered an enemy from today on. So I implore you: do not cause needless death, especially not your own. Liberate your pokémon."

–

AUTHOR'S NOTES: Whew, that was the longest chapter of the story so far, at 7500 words. In fact, it's not just longer than any other chapter, but the chapter itself is longer than any other chapter WITH its annotations counted in! Considering how long these tend to be lately thanks to the large amount of feedback, I think it is safe to say this is a long chapter. But great fun to write; I wrote most of it in a single day. I can only hope you had as much fun reading it as I did writing it.

You probably want to ask me about Ghetsis' team: where are Bisharp and Cofagrigus, and especially Hydreigon? The thing is, that I think most of Ghetsis' pokémon are on his team because of their low amount of weaknesses. I decided to make that a theme of his team. So I decided to give him only pokémon with zero or one weaknesses. That's why Cofagrigus was replaced by Spiritomb, which has no weaknesses at all because its dark typing covers all its ghost typing's weaknesses and vice versa. Bisharp was replaced with Escavalier because it has only one weakness, while Bisharp has three. Of course, though Kingdra took Hydreigon's place, I could hardly do the final battle without Hydreigon, so I can confirm that Hydreigon is not gone from the story, it will still appear in an important role in the final battle, just not now.

You may wonder how Selene evolved without a Dusk Stone. For the answer, I'd like you to go back to chapter 22, where Aqua explains that stones aren't really needed to evolve, they're more like a shortcut. The same thing goes for Murkrow, in my view: while a Dusk Stone evolves it immediately, it will eventually evolve to a Honchkrow without it.

FEEDBACK: The Bulbafinatic: Q: I guess that the sixth slot in Black's party will be...

A: Well, I think you know who the sixth member of the team is going to be after this chapter.

Q: Yeah. But as all powerful, serious Pokémon, it doesn't get to me. Especially when they'll be under the influence of a trainer.

A: Yeah, I'm still going to have to figure out a good way to handle their speaking that isn't overly stuck-up or narmy, yet worthy of legendaries.

Q: About Aqua, it would be truly horrible if she died. I'd burst into tears, I promise you.

A: Then it's a good thing she's still alive, much though the fact that you like her so much flatters me.

Q: Why the chapter title, "Ice Mask"? I get the ice, but the mask?

A: It's Brycen's title.

Q: Ever notice how the tone of the story really changes as you progress through it? At first this story is cheerful and pleasant, and then awesome, then terrifying, then it gets really dark. We're going around the cycle again! Around here it's at the awesome part. And that means... oh no. Chapter 50. That means it'll get terrifying once again.

A: You're right, the tone does change. It's because I've planned each part (except the first two, because they were written before I introduced the part-structure) with a specific tone and mood in mind. Part six, for example, is very dark, while part seven on the other hand is cheerful and pleasant. As for part eight, you'll see its mood soon enough, but this chapter should give you a good indication. But there's no cycle, so don't expect the story to go through similar moods in the same order again.

TrueBolt: Q: Yo, its TrueBolt again! First off, I was deeply honored that you used my idea for Boreas' air move. (although looking at it on paper it looks a little long) Who knew I would influence a masterpiece?

A: Oh, don't be all that honoured, it's just a name and it's not _that_ great a story.

Q: You are correct in that no one has ever killed my family or best friend. (accept in my dreams, and then half the time it was me) However, trying to be as faithful a Christian as I can, I would hope that I would have the power to forgive anyone for anything. After all, in my faith we believe that Jesus forgave everyone including myself and I'll have you know that my 18 years have been far from perfect. I apologize if I've offended you in saying this, and also for the rest of Christianity because for the most part they are viewed as being two-faced, and for good reason. *sigh*

A: Of course you haven't, it would be silly to be offended by someone's beliefs (well, unless they're really creepy extremist/fundamentalist beliefs that make you wonder whether the middle ages ever ended). But, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't repentance a requirement for forgiveness in Christianity? I.e: someone has to realise they were wrong and apologise/tell a priest, and then they are forgiven. Because Diego, nor the rest of Team Plasma, ever had the slightest intention of apologising for their actions. Aqua and Boreas, on the other hand, did eventually apologise to each other, and forgave each other. And the same goes for the various arguments between Boreas and Octa. Just a thought.

Q: My theory is that the 'new member' of blacks' party will make its apearence on the upcoming battle and save Aqua from Deago? Probably not, but good gues right?

A: Very good guess. He more directly saved Boreas from Diego, but of course, he did get the nurse in time to rescue her, both from her wounds and the collapse of the tower.

Q: The ending of the Inheritance cerise left much to be desired. Eragon ends up going off to live by himself for the rest of eternity, and everyone else get jobs they dont want. It would have been a better ending if some obligations had been freed up and someone had gone with him, or if he and Saphira had to go do something else first. Basicly, dont leave all the characters doing nothing at the end. (and that dosent mean kill them all eather o-O)

A: I'll take that under consideration, but I can't tell you anything except what I've already said a dozen times: There will be a happy ending. For _some_ characters.

Q: It sucks to hear about the copy write stuff... Mabey send the completed story to Pokemon inc with your best reviews?

A: Nah, it's just a fanfic and the Pokémon company would never actually publish it. Even if they liked it a lot, it contains several things Nintendo wants nothing to do with, like violence, implied sex, and some cursing. I don't think they're big on talking pokémon in the first place, anyway. But that is not bad; anyone who wants to read this story can still read it here.

Q: I duno, but I am sad to hear that I will never hold the hardback in my hands...

A: Well, if you really want a physical copy, you can just print it out when it's finished. In fact, though it might cost you a bit of money, you could get an actual printing company to print it a single copy as an actual book for you. Since it would be for only your personal use, that doesn't infringe copyrights (I think).

Q: When does Boreas learn blizzard? Its been a while since he learnd his last powerful move ice beam...

A: He'll learn it eventually; you'll see when.

Glaceon34: Q: brace yourself for the coming storm! Can't wait for the next chpater !

A: I hope this chapter was worth the anticipation. That was exactly the sort of reaction I hoped to elicit with the previous chapter.

Q: And N is ghesist'son , where did that come from?

A: Well, it's heavily implied in the game, especially during the scene before the battle with Ghetsis (in the Japanese version, he actually calls N his son during that scene). They also look quite alike, especially their hair. An official statement has been made that N's parents are unknown and that he believes pokémon were his parents.

Q: So this is Diego 'point of view you have mentioned, awesome! thanks to this I have more reasons to dislike this devil-fox !

A: And now even more.

Q: I have asked this before but now I have to bring it up again,where are other supporting characters? you have awfully neglected them, the last time we saw them was around chapter 28 when battling Elesa from that point onward it just like they have disapear from the face of the Earth, not a phone call(the aren't given th xtransiver for nothing) ,mentioned or anything which I think maybe your story's biggest flaw. In the first 30 chapters, Cheren, Bianca and White appeared occasinally, took part in important event ( battle the first 2 sanges and 3 gym leaders if I recalled correctly) and so are their pokemon, I would love to see Febby again( sadly,it took me 10 mins to search your whole story again to find her names) so their lack of appearance really hurt the story quality. So my suggestion is that unless you don't plan for them to appear again which I highly doubt, I think you should have 1 or 2 chapter about the character explain where and what they are doing maybe as a bonus chapter after an arc. You are still the one to make the final decision,whether it will be I will still support your story to the end, but my point still stand

A: Yes, I've neglected them incredibly since part four. Cheren made a single appearance in chapter 30, but after that we haven't seen them at all. The truth is that there just wasn't any place for them in part six or seven; they would only have distracted from the story. But now they're back (White will make an appearance in a few chapters as well). The reason they didn't appear for all this time in the story is that Bianca and Cheren fell behind Black in their journey (probably because of how busy Clay is and how rarely he has time to battle), while White lives in Castelia, which is now quite far away.

Ganonfan 117: Q: As a Glaceon, Boreas has an astounding base SpA stat of 130 and very adequate defensive capabillities (stat value wise, of course, he only resists his own type) , but has horrid speed and physical attack. But since he has such a terrifying SpA, he should be able to dispatch a Zoroark with very little trouble as it has absolutely wretched defenses, right?

A: Based purely on stats, yes. But there's level too. While I don't use levels in my story, there's no question that Diego is more experienced than Boreas. Zoroark is also very fast, which makes him hard to hit (not in the games, but it does using a more realistic combat system). There's also the fact that a Glaceon is the size of a large fox, while Zoroark is as large as a human. While this doesn't affect their in-game stats, I like to take a more realistic approach, and realistically a Zoroark would be a terrifying opponent to a Glaceon, even without the illusionary powers.

Q: I feel like the offspring of a nerd and a millitary tactician sometimes... That's not weird in any way, shape, or form, is it?

A: Not really. Weirder things have happened.

FlameUser64: Q: have a problem with this chapter. Specifically, VILEPLUME IS POISON TYPE. POISON TYPES CANNOT BE POISONED, and on top of that they are resistant to Poison type attacks. So that Sludge Bomb has only regular, 1x effectiveness on Toxica. It should not have knocked her out in one hit like it did. On the other hand, aren't Poison types weak to Ground?

A: Whoops, you're absolutely right, that fight is pretty weird really. Though Sludge Bomb is a very powerful attack.

Q: I would just like to say, right here, that Capella's death was gruesome enough to warrant this fic an M rating all by itself. And that I think I'm not reading any more of this.

A: :-( I hope it's just because of Capella's death slightly skirting on the upper edges of a T rating... Because if it is, I can promise nothing remotely that gory will ever happen again in the story. (That's not to say no more character death will occur, just that it wouldn't be nearly as nasty as Capella's demise)


	51. Dead or Alive?

Chapter Fifty-One: Dead or Alive?

Boreas' primary fear had been taken away after Nurse Ebola took him and Aqua to the pokécenter and confirmed she would probably survive and recover, though she was unconscious for now. With most of Boreas' fear gone, that left curiosity as his main emotion. The fact that his many painful bruises were rapidly healed by the pokécenter's advanced healing machinery, or that his broken bones were set and promised to be fully healed in five days, or that his concussion was cured all paled in comparison to the anticipation he felt to visiting hour. When it finally came Boreas was of course happy to see his friends, but he had mainly been looking forward to the mysterious Flareon's visit. Boreas couldn't believe his brother would still be alive, but even if the Flareon was probably lying, there was no denying that he was on Boreas' side, as he had saved both his and Aqua's life.

The Flareon cheerfully entered the ward with Boreas' friends. Boreas had to admit, the similarity to Zeph was uncanny. Of course, he looked different at first glance, as he was now a Flareon and eight times older than last time he'd seen his brother, yet the face looked so similar... "Hey, good to see you, brother! How are you and that foxy Vaporeon of yours coming along?"

"We're fine," Boreas responded. "Thanks to you. Whoever you are, I can't thank you enough for saving us. But I'd like to know who my saviour really is. You can't really be Zeph. I mean... You died."

The Flareon beamed. "Reports of my death have been exaggerated! Though only slightly."

Boreas arched an eyebrow sceptically. "If you really are Zeph, tell me something only he would know."

Zeph grinned. "You've changed. When we were cubs, you'd have been so happy at my return you would have embraced me by now."

"Not good enough: most people grow less impulsive and emotional as they grow up. If you think you can fool me with cold reading tricks like a medium, you've got it wrong."

"I hadn't started yet!" the Flareon's voice sounded familiar to Boreas, that was certain. Like someone he knew, yet different. "I was just remarking that you'd changed! If you want me to talk about when we were cubs, here it goes: I am the third-born brother of four; you are my elder by twenty-five minutes. Eurus is older than both of us; Notus younger. Our parents, who were named Spark and Flora, named us after the four directions of the wind. You were the first thing I ever saw; as you were examining my egg in curiosity when I managed to make an opening in the scale."

"I've told all that to Octa; he could easily have mentioned it to others in the time since then, which could be how you know it."

"The first time our parents let us go outside the burrow, the world outside fascinated you. You wanted to see all of it immediately, but Mum had to disappoint you by telling you you couldn't. And the night after that, I was woken up by Dad being angry at you for trying to sneak out to see more of the world. When you returned to our part of the burrow, you were crying and I comforted you."

Boreas was quite astonished. "Okay, that is harder to explain... You certainly know a lot about my early life. But I'm not convinced; tell me more."

The Flareon sighed. "About a week before the last time we saw each other, our parents allowed us to go into the forest alone. But instead of trying to find food, we just played. But our noise attracted an Ekans who nearly ate me; but you attacked it and saved me. But then it turned on you instead... And I ran away at first, because I was really scared, but I attacked it too and we both managed to escape. Realising how much trouble we'd be in if Mum and Dad ever knew, we promised never to tell anyone."

Boreas was speechless. "I... Never told anyone... One final test: tell me the final things our family said to us before they died."

"Eurus warned us about the monster, and swore he'd really seen it. Notus asked if he could come with us, and I said no. Dad told us to be careful and to be home soon. Mum..." a tear rolled over the Flareon's cheek. "Mum told us to run for our lives..."

Boreas embraced the Flareon from his bed, feeling his soft fur and fluffy collar brush against him. "It _is_ you! Zeph, I missed you! How... How did you survive?"

Boreas thought Zeph smelt weird. But then, he had never smelt a Flareon's odour before. It did remind him of a familiar scent, but it was very smoky and stung his nostrils, making it hard to recognise his brother's odour. After hugging back, Zeph quickly escaped from the hug. "Sorry," he said awkwardly. "I just don't like to be touched... It's nothing personal, just a sort of general thing... The old woman who saved me had rather old-fashioned ideas of disciplining and used to hit me when I was bad... Since then, someone touching me just sort of makes me feel uncomfortable."

"Oh..." said Boreas. "That's awful."

"Well, aside from that she was quite kind. No need to pity me, I'd just rather you don't hug me too often."

"Okay, I won't," Boreas smiled. "Now tell me: how can you still be alive? I saw you collapse, your throat cut! Or did I see that wrong?"

"You're right, my throat _was_ cut, and I collapsed as I was suddenly in horrible pain and didn't get any more air. I thought I was going to die. A cut throat is no fun, Boreas. I tried to breathe though the blood loss rapidly made me lose consciousness anyway, but my blood flowed into my throat and into my lungs, making me drown in it. So I soon lost consciousness.

So imagine my surprise when I woke up; my throat in bad pain, but I was still alive. An old lady named Helen and her Audino had found me, probably mere moments after you found your own rescue. My heart had already stopped beating, but the Audino was so skilled he could not only partially heal my throat right there, but also reanimate me. They took me back to their home before the Zangeese returned. You can imagine how terrified I was, a tiny little Eevee cub, suddenly in a human's home, having lost his entire family. At least, that's what I thought; I didn't know you were still alive."

Octa, who had been quietly listening to the exchange until then, spoke up: "Boreas was highly favoured by fortune as well: Black and I happened to be close by when we heard sounds of near running and fighting. Unfortunately we were too late to stop the Zangeese from cutting your throat, but I did manage to rescue Boreas from their claws. I am surprised this Helen still managed to rescue you even with an Audino, though. Black and I had to run for our lives as soon as we rescued Boreas from the Zangeese, hearing them return, or we would have buried you. Did they have to fight the Zangeese off or did they manage to rescue you before they returned?"

Zeph looked puzzled. "You know, I never asked them. The memories of that night were too painful to ask them anyway."

Boreas had a thought. "What about Mum and Dad and Eurus and Notus? Are they...?"

Zeph shook his head sadly. "Aesclepius – that's the Audino – told me they had checked the burrow out, but it was empty. The Zangeese must've eaten them..."

Boreas sighed sadly. "Well, at least you survived as well, that's more than I'd ever thought... But how did you find me?"

"Well, at first I thought you had been eaten, like the others. So I stayed with Helen and Aesclepius, realising I had nowhere else to go. I stayed there for half a year, growing up slowly. But then, one day, while a terrible storm was raging over Unova, I was watching television with Helen when I saw coverage of a battle in Nimbasa. The people from the news had filmed a battle between a mysterious pokémon master and a trainer named Black. They showed his pokémon... And I saw a Glaceon who looked awfully familiar! I thought I had to be mistaken; yet I recognised your face and your eyes clearly, even if you had evolved by then. Then your trainer mentioned your name and that he had rescued you from Zangeese attacking your family on Route 1... And I knew my brother was still alive, evolved to a Glaceon!"

"Of course!" Boreas gasped, "I remember that battle! So that's how you found me? But how come you're a Flareon and not a Jolteon like you always wanted?"

Zeph suddenly looked very sad.

"Oh. I-I'm sorry, I didn't know-"

"It's alright, Boreas; I'll tell you. When I saw you on television, I wanted nothing more than to find you again. So I travelled to Nimbasa. I got lost several times on the way, but eventually I found it. But by then, you weren't there any more! So I tried to find out about you, and learnt about the Gym challenge and that people who took it usually travelled to Driftveil next. But you had left there as well already. So I travelled to Mistralton. But on my way there I had to go through Chargestone Cave. One day in there, in a room where someone had scratched the words "**CAPELLA OF THE HOUSE OF DRACO**" into a big stone-"

Boreas and all his other visitors gasped as they recognised that. "Capella?" said Boreas. "She was our friend, and she died in that cave..."

"I'm sorry to hear that. You're not the only ones who have lost something in that cave. A trainer found me in that room... I had had dealings with trainers before, of course; many of them would love to catch an Eevee. But this time, I couldn't run away, as I was in a corner in a cave..." A tear ran down Zeph's cheek. "I tried to fight, but the trainer's Venusaur was just too strong... It had nearly beaten me, and I knew once I'd been captured I would never be able to continue my quest to find you... But I saw a glowing stone stick out of the wall next to me... But it was a Fire Stone, not a Thunder Stone... I realised if I wanted to find you, I had to give up my dream of being a Jolteon and become a slow, ugly Flareon... Forever..." his voice trailed off.

"Oh, Zeph..." Boreas said compassionately as he tried to embrace his brother again, holding himself back when he remembered he didn't like to be touched. "That was very brave and noble of you. But look on the bright side: I'm sure you'll eventually like being a Flareon. I mean, Flareons may not be all that fast, but you're incredibly strong! And you've got cool fire powers and a fluffy collar, and-"

"Please," Zeph interrupted. "Spare me the attempt to convince me this is a good thing; it's not. But I found you again, brother, so it was worth it. Now, tell me: what have you been up to?" he arched an eyebrow and grinned. "Particularly with that cutie I saved from the Zoroark, eh?"

Boreas blushed. Fortunately, his friends had already left, seeing that Boreas was only interested in Zeph at the moment, and gone to Toxica, who was in a different room as she'd gotten a severe concussion when heavy rubble fell onto her while she was fighting Aqua. "Well, it's kind of a long story."

"Hey, I don't mind. I'd love to know what you've been up to."

"Okay. Well, after you collapsed I..."

–

"Wow," said Zeph when Boreas had finished. "What an adventure you've been through!"

"Heh, that was only a short summary," grinned Boreas.

"Still, you've been through a lot. I mean, you've fought against villains, travelled to all kinds of places, got yourself a saucy girlfriend... Count me in."

"In? In on what?"

"On the team of course, idiot. I want to join your adventure!"

Boreas shrugged, then grinned at the thought of his brother joining the team. "Sure, if you want to join I'd be glad to have you in the team. But it's a lot less fun to go through all those things than to hear about them."

Zeph laughed. "Hey, don't worry. I'm quite tough, you know. It's pretty much the only good thing of being a Flareon. I mean, I am stronger even than that Zoroark! Next time, I'll get him for being such a bastard to my brother!"

"Be careful," said Boreas. "You may be stronger than him, but you got him by surprise yesterday, after Aqua and I had already weakened him. He's not just strong; or I could've beaten him myself. He's also quite cunning and smart."

"But not as smart as you. So, what's the worry? I'm stronger than him, you're smarter than him. Together he can't do a thing against us."

"Alright," Boreas laughed. "I won't worry about it. Anyway, just talk to Octa and he'll get Black to catch you if you want to be part of the team."

–

Aqua opened her eyes the tiny bit she could manage and saw something odd: tiles. She didn't remember ever waking up to see such a regular pattern, and it filled her with apprehension. She knew there was one species on Earth which really loved these kinds of regular patterns... She tried to look around, but her head was held in the same direction by some sort of clamp. Tubes and wires were tucked into her nose and mouth, and something covered the top of her head. Terrified by all this, she tried to struggle out of the things holding her, but she was terribly weak... She couldn't even feel anything below her shoulders, and what was above it felt like it was made of yoghurt. Her breath became fast and ragged as she felt panic descend upon her, trying to escape.

Then the horrible visage of a human appeared just before her, saying something that she was too panicked to understand. Its big, flat, bald face's hideous pink skin reminded Aqua of pigs, while its cold, merciless eyes stared into hers. Its tiny, deformed ears were almost hidden in a mass of the only fur it had, which was a sickly yellow colour. As it spoke to her, its ugly red lips revealed small, stubby teeth underneath. The human was immense, about twice as large as her, and very close. She tried to scream in terror and scald the human's horrific face, but she was so weak only a whining squeal came out of her.

"Get away from me!" she whispered in terror. "Don't do this to me! Please... Let me go..."

The horrible human extended its spidery, long-fingered hand to her, and to make matters worse it was holding a sharp stabbing weapon. Aqua tried to back away, but it was impossible and the human found her neck. She felt a brief, piercing pain and then darkness enveloped her.

–

Aqua opened her eyes and saw something odd: tiles. She didn't remember ever waking up to see such a regular pattern, except in a half-remembered nightmare, and it filled her with apprehension. She knew there was one species on Earth which really loved these kinds of regular patterns... She tried to look around, but her head was held in the same direction by some sort of clamp. Tubes and wires were tucked into her nose and something covered the top of her head. Terrified by all this, she tried to struggle out of them, but she was quite weak and her rear legs didn't seem to respond at all, while her front legs were held in the same position by clamps.

But then she heard a voice that partially calmed her down just by its sound, a voice she considered incredibly sexy, though it wasn't really all that deep or masculine or rhythmic. "Don't be scared, Aqua," he said.

Aqua felt reassured by the fact that Boreas was with her, but the situation was still very threatening. "Wh-where am I?" she whispered, as she was too weak to speak normally. "What's going on? What happened?"

"You're in a pokécenter, because you have been severely wounded by Diego. But don't worry, you're going to be alright."

Aqua tried to get up and whimpered in terror. "I-inside a human building? I c-can't get up! Help me, my love, get me out of here! What did they do to me? I can't feel anything below my shoulders!"

Boreas touched her head with his paws and stroked her finned ears, slightly calming her down. "Calm down, dearest, or they'll have to sedate you again. Listen to me, I know you don't like the humans, but they saved your life."

Aqua tried to look at Boreas, but she couldn't move her head as it was held in place. "Wh-why did they do this to me? Please, untie me! I-I can't move!"

"It's for your own good. Diego broke your back in several places. You're paralysed now because all nerves go through the spine. That's why you can't feel anything below your shoulders. But fortunately, the humans' incredible medicine can cure it, both the bone and your damaged nerves. But that will take them a long time, and meanwhile the regenerating nerves are very easy to damage. Even by just moving, you could damage them now. That's why they made it impossible for you to move."

Aqua's breath was ragged with fear, not just at the thought of being so incredibly vulnerable to the humans who captured her, but also that her back was broken. That was a permanent injury. Yet, if Boreas said she would recover, she had to believe him. "I'm scared, Boreas... Stay with me and don't let the humans near me, please..."

As his paws continued stroking her head, his handsome face appeared in her view. His piercingly intelligent, cyan eyes reassured her and she couldn't help but admire the way his long, messy blue hair fell over his face as he looked down to her. "Don't worry, my love. I'll be in here with you constantly for the next few days while my own bruises, broken bones, and concussions heal. After that, I'll visit you as much as I can. But humans will have to come near you sometimes. When the nurse realised how much humans frighten you, she instructed the pokémon that work here to completely take over the care for you, but they can't operate on you. That'll have to be done by humans."

Aqua whimpered in fear at the thought of a human cutting in her with a knife. "N-n-no! I-I don't want that! Anything but that! I-I'd rather die!"

The look on Boreas' face broke her heart. "Don't say that, my love. Please. What would I do without you? If you don't want to do this for yourself, at least do it for me."

Aqua swallowed a lump of fear. "O-okay. If it's really necessary..."

"It is. Without these operations, your back will never heal."

Aqua drew a deep breath to banish the horrid thoughts of humans cutting in her. "Okay... I'll let the humans operate on me, if you promise to keep an eye on them the whole time."

"I don't think I'm allowed to be there when you're operated, love. Besides, I can assure you they can be trusted, and even if they couldn't, I wouldn't know the difference between cutting that heals and cutting that doesn't."

Aqua shivered at the thought of humans cutting in her, much though Boreas reassured her. "I... I understand... I'm scared, Boreas... I know the humans are only trying to help me, but... Well, imagine if you were going to be operated by Zangeese."

"I understand your fear, my love," said Boreas lovingly as he stroked her ears. "But trust me, it's going to be alright. I swear it to you. In two months, your pretty blue back will be all better again, and you can go wherever you want and do whatever you want."

"And _whoever_ I want," Aqua winked. But then she realised what he had said. "Wait, _two months?_"

Boreas blushed in a very cute and attractive manner at her flirting. "Yes, I know it's a long time. Nurse Ebola says you'll be able to move your rear legs again in a few weeks, and you can go out in two months or so. It's very hard to cure a broken back."

"Two whole months... I don't know if I can handle being with these humans for so long..."

"Please, be strong, my love. Do it for me. It would crush me if you died or became disabled forever."

Aqua looked deep into Boreas' attractive cyan eyes and found some strength. "Alright. I'll be as strong as I can for you."

–

Boreas startled as a large, feathery black thing fell into the hospital room through the open window. The the messy heap of feathers stirred and flew up onto his bed. "Oh, hi Selene. You startled me."

"Hi, Selene," said Aqua, still stuck in the same position in her bed. "How are you?"

"You should be careful with that window," said Selene, "it might hurt someone. Uncle Istvan always used to say they were watching him, and look what happened to him..."

"Oh, what happened to him?" Boreas asked.

Selene nodded. "Indeed."

A silence fell. "So, Selene," said Aqua. "Boreas said you recently evolved to a Honchkrow. How does that feel?"

Selne looked stupefied. "I did?"

"Yeah," said Boreas. "Remember? During the big battle in Dragonspiral Tower?"

Selene looked down at herself and nearly fell off the bed with surprise. "Waark!" she screeched. "I'm a Honchkrow! Who did that to me?"

"Don't you like it?" asked Boreas, thinking of his poor brother, who was now forever stuck as a Flareon against his will.

"I think I do, actually. I wonder if Team Plasma will win the war now that so many trainers are releasing their pokémon," she said, suddenly changing conversations with the speed of an Electrode rolling down Mt. Twist.

"Releasing their pokémon?" Boreas asked with concern.

Selene nodded. "It is all over the news. Lucius says they're all spineless heaps of Nidoran droppings that had better stay out of his way if they know what's good for them."

"How many trainers released their pokémon?"

"Lots. And more every day. And others just disappear forever, often with signs of a vicious struggle... Then more trainers realise Team Plasma is serious, they get terrified and release their pokémon as well... It's one of them fiscal circles..."

Boreas saw the grim look on her face. "You're very worried about this, aren't you?"

Selene didn't answer, instead she stared at his face while she squinted and half-turned her head. "You know... If I was colour-blind, you'd look just like Einstein like this..."

"Do I?" Asked Boreas.

"Yeah. If you grew a moustache, the similarity would be uncanny if you squinted really, really badly and ignored the ears..." She looked at her wing as if she wore a watch there. "Oh, look at my wing, I've got to go!" she flew out of the window.

–

Boreas walked through the pokécenter's corridors. The leg was coming along very nicely, he had to admit. He could barely feel it any more. He tried to focus on that thought and not on Aqua getting operated. It was not much of a surprise that he wasn't allowed to be in the operation room, and Aqua had kept herself surprisingly well. Boreas' admiration for her bravery only made him feel even more scared for her well-being. The thought that something could go wrong with the operation and she could die was too terrible to think of.

"My dear fellow," Octa greeted him. "I deduce from your evidently preoccupied and worried state, as well as the fact that you are walking aimlessly through these corridors that your dearly beloved is presently undergoing an operation."

Boreas nodded stiffly. "Yeah. If everything goes right, it should help her nerves to begin their regeneration..."

Octa smiled. "Isn't science wonderful? A mere twenty years ago, a broken back could never be healed. Well, the bone could, obviously, but the nerves inside would be gone forever and paralysis would be permanent. Even a decade ago, Aqua would never have made more than a partial recovery. Yet now, she will be fully cured, and within only two months as well! I hope this incident will open her eyes to the virtues of _Homo sapiens_."

"I merely hope she will open her eyes at all..." Boreas muttered.

Octa put a hand on his shoulder. "I apologise, my dear fellow, I do get a bit carried away sometimes. Evidently her survival would be your primary concern."

Boreas smiled. "Don't worry. You're not the one who should apologise; Diego is. What kind of horrible person would do that anyway? Why does he hate me so much to try and kill Aqua and me?"

Octa shrugged. "Well, I guess it might be because you are a rather polarising type of person. People have a tendency to either love you or hate you."

"They do?"

Octa nodded. "Indeed. There is very little possibility in between those two with you. Evidently Diego hates you. While I, for example, I..." his voice trailed off.

"You?" asked Boreas.

"Well, I don't."

Boreas smiled. "Thanks, that really means a lot to me."

"And that's from the heart. I really do... not hate you," he scraped his throat. "The reason I came here was because I received a message from my family. In light of recent events, they want me to return home temporarily."

Boreas turned around with a start. "They want you to return home? And what recent events?"

"Indeed they do, though temporarily. The recent events I would assume they mean are Team Plasma declaring war and trainers and pokémon all over Unova mysteriously disappearing."

"But... What about your ancestors who all did great things? I didn't think your family would want to keep you safe when you have a chance to really change the world for the better."

"You misunderstand, my dear fellow. If my hypothesis is correct, they are not doing this to keep me safe; but presumably their reasoning is twofold: first of all pokémon breeders are likely to be attacked once more, and therefore I would be useful in my home's defence whilst still performing deeds worthy of the name Equinox; and secondly, while they would never want to stifle me, my death would currently be a severe loss for our house, as I have not produced offspring yet. Therefore my suspicion is that they discovered a mate for me. Considering there is little we can do otherwise until the Light Stone's location is discovered, I wish for you, my best friend, to accompany me, both to fight by my side and as my best man."

Boreas was a little overwhelmed. "But... You love Toxica. You don't even know who your family chose as your mate! You can't let them go through with this!"

"It is customary to thank for the honour," said Octa, sourly. "And I intend to go through with this. Whether or not I am attracted to Toxica is irrelevant: I am of the house of Equinox. 'Tis my duty to my ancestors and descendants to take the mate my family chooses for me."

"No, it isn't!" Boreas snapped. "Suicune's shite, Octa, we've been over this two weeks ago! I thought I'd made some progress then, but here you are, proving it just bounced off your skull! Don't you realise Toxica would make an excellent addition to your house? Did you forget my entire argument about why you should change the rules?"

"My dear fellow, please. These are hard, dangerous times, and the last thing my family needs now is to be split up over an issue like this. If these were easier times, then I would perchance attack the rules and endeavour to set a new precedent. But what my house needs now is to stand together as one."

"So that's it. Simply because Team Plasma declared war, you're going to throw your happiness and Toxica's away? You're a coward."

"WHAT?" bellowed Octa.

"Yes, a coward. You let your fear overwhelm you and force you into not doing what's right! You consider yourself a highly logical person, but where's the logic in this?"

Octa sighed. "I have heard your arguments. But my decision stands. I take the train back this afternoon. I have already told Black. Do you wish to accompany me?"

"I promised Aqua I would stay with her, and I intend to."

"I understand. But it is a true shame; I would have loved to have you present. That does present me with the problem of whom to take with me if not you. Black couldn't understand a word that would be said, and Selene... well, she couldn't either, and I am not too fond of Lucius..."

–

Toxica looked at the great mansion of Octa's family ahead. It had been very nice of Octa to invite her to come visit his family together with him. He had been very nice to her in general since the night when he had admitted his feelings to her and Boreas had talked to him. She still couldn't forgive him for everything, but it did make her feel a lot better. Though she had noticed, all through the trip,that Octa seemed preoccupied, even worried. She decided to ask him about it.

"Octa, is something wrong? You seem worried."

"Oh no, nothing is wrong. I am merely looking forward to seeing my family once again."

"Look, you can share it with me, whatever it is. I won't mind."

"I suspect you will," muttered Octa.

Toxica would ask him what he meant, but they had already reached his family's home. Toxica remembered the instructions Octa had given her and greeted his every relative with the same deference and honour. Finally, after they had greeted every on of his relatives, Octa's father, Lord Publius Cornelius – a stately, noble Serperior with a purple, plume-like leaf on the top of his head and with large, curly collar-like extensions on the side of his neck– happily beamed at his son.

"Octa, my son," he spoke in a rich voice that reminded Toxica a lot of Octa's. "You have truly grown up well. Look at you, you're truly worthy of the name Equinox."

Octa bowed gratefully. "Thank you, Father. 'Tis all thanks to your education and training that I am who I am today."

Lord Publius continued: "Not only have you grown up very well, you have also gone through your evolutionary metamorphosis and become a Servine. I believe you shall soon go through another metamorphosis and become a Serperior I can be even prouder of. Yet, my dear son, in light of your incredible progress as a person, I believe it is only the more clear that you are still lacking something: an equally admirable companion."

Octa didn't say anything. Toxica realised now why they were here, and she felt horrible about it. She felt furious towards Octa for inviting her to let her witness the moment when she would lose him forever. But she also saw an uncomfortable tension in Octa's handsome face, and realised this was her last chance. If she spoke up right now and told his family about their feelings for each other...

"B..." she said, as she saw Galaxia's powerful stare aimed at her. She felt incredibly self-conscious, and wanted nothing more than to stop talking, in fact leave right away. But she realised that would ruin her chances of being with Octa forever. She took a deep breath and tried to ignore Galaxia's relentless stare.

"Bu..." her voice trailed off after a single extra letter when a gorgeous blue Servine entered the room. Her entire form had an almost angelic beauty, her gleaming scales and leaves were coloured a pure, almost translucent sapphire. Her lithe body moved with a finesse that made Octa look like a primitive brute by comparison, and her deep emerald eyes seemed to shine with starlight.

"My son," beamed Lord Publius, "it is my great pleasure to introduce you to Aurora Invicta of the house of Quintillus. Aurora, I present my son Octavianus."

The gorgeous Aurora made a courteous, elegant bow to Octa. "It is truly a pleasure to meet you, son of the house of Equinox," she said in a voice that would lead nightingales never to sing again in jealousy and develop severe drinking problems.

Toxica realised she had been staring blindly at the new arrival for a while now, fixated on her beauty and elegance. She woke herself up from her reverie. If that was the effect Aurora had on her, a female, Octa would be captivated without any hope. A single look at his mesmerised face as he greeted her confirmed that thought. Her heart sank into a black well of despair as she realised she was absolutely chanceless against such beauty, such elegance, and such finesse. Her eyes caught great-aunt Galaxia doing something she hadn't seen her do before: she smiled.

–

AUTHOR'S NOTES: This chapter is slightly unstructured and all over the place, but it was necessary. Incidentally, I opened a poll asking you what your favourite part of the story is in my profile. Go and answer it!

Aurora is a shiny Servine, in case you were wondering.

FEEDBACK: UmbraFox: Q: Wow, I don't think anyone expected Zeph to come out of nowhere, and so powerful too...

A: Well, he's mainly just strong, being a Flareon. You also have to remember Diego was already weakened from his battle with Boreas and Aqua.

Guardian54: Q: Can I borrow the general idea of when Capella died to use for a character death in my Pokemon fanfic (which I will evnetually continue and complete)?

A: Yes, you can. Though I'd advice you not to be too detailed about it; not everyone seems to appreciate that.

Q: Thanks for teh great chapter, and I did not see that guy coming. I was expecting Reshiram to be the number 6 on Black's team, honestly.

A: Well, it'll take until late part ten before they meet Reshiram, and Black'll really need a full team to make it through parts eight, nine, and ten before then, as things are getting quite dangerous. Besides, legendaries are though to write well as characters.

The Bulbafinatic: Q: Selene's evolving seemed to change her personality. Is she still crazy?

A: No, she's still the same old Selene, though evolution might've altered her behaviour slithly. She's always had her stranger moments and her clearer moments. I can assure you evolution hasn't changed her personality much.

Q: This chapter is awesome, weird, freaky, and dark at the same time. I wish Diego would just DIE, which is weird, considering how usually I want everyone to LIVE.

A: Considering the chances of certain other people dying if Diego doesn't, I'd say it's not that weird.

Q: You say Nintendo doesn't like the idea of talking Pokémon, but what about the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon series?

A: I suppose those are an exception. Outside of those games, I don't think they've ever had a pokémon talk non-telepathically. BUT there's no need to come with the inevitable counter-examples that are going to torpedo my statements here. It doesn't matter whether or not they like it anyway.

Q: Also,

A: Yes, but

UNKNOWN: Ooh, what a climactic ending! Eh, if I were there I would just fight to the last man, er, mon!

A: And so will some trainers, like Black. Certainly not all, though.

Q: Hope that not many have their TV or radio on...

A: It'll be a major news item either way, so it probably doesn't matter.

Q: I would have thought that Team Plasma would have resorted to guns by now. I mean, if they really wanted Black and the others dead, they would have used anything at their disposal. And I know guns are not unknown (heh, that's me!) in the series because I've seen Ash get revolvers, smg's, and muskets pointed at his head in the anime. Team Rocket used bazookas and even Officer Jenny used an M1 Garand once. If they weren't invented in Unova, somebody must've already had the idea!

A: Well, I would say: "the anime is not my story and I don't consider anything in it canon or binding" with regard to your examples, but unfortunately I showed a gun in chapter 22. So I can't claim guns haven't been invented. But perhaps, the idea of fighting or making war with them just hasn't been thought of? Consider the fact that pokémon have always been available to use for fights and wars throughout history; it is likely to be a complete paradigm that wars are fought with pokémon, and no-one would just realise guns could be used for them as well.

Q: Man, Diego is officially a dick! How could N go through all of his life understanding Pokemon, yet is still oblivious to his own's evil?

A: For one thing, Diego raised and educated N; he is his oldest friend, and N trusts him completely. For another, Diego is wise enough to hide his true nature from N.

Q: Hope Aqua's gonna be okay... Get well soon! And really, soon, because the tower might collapse.

A: It already did, remember? At the end of the previous chapter, after they'd all got out.

JHawkeye9000: Q: Wow Boreas really likes hitting Diego in the groin.

A: It is a very effective place to hit someone, so Boreas hits there because it gives him a much better chance against a much more powerful opponent. And it's a bit of a running gag.

TrueBolt: Q: It be de Bolt dude again! And first off, yes it IS that great a story! I scincerley believe that this will be concidered by most if not all a masterpiece. That has already been astabliched, and that is how I describe it to everyone I share it with.

A: Well, thank you a lot for that.

Q: (see how I use spaces this time to make you'r job easyer?)

A: Thanks, that does indeed make it easier to read than a wall of text.

By the way, I edited the talk about religion from your comment. Not because I want to censor you or am offended by it, but simply because it doesn't have much to do with my story, and people feel quite strongly about it, so there's a good chance someone will see it, for one reason or another feel the need to say something about it, and start a discussion about it in the comments; which is something I don't really want. I don't blame you for posting it, it was my own fault for talking about it in the feedback section, and basically inviting you to respond.

Q: It might be a good idea however, (as another fellow reviewer mentioned) to make some extra chapters to illustrate what is happening to Cheren and Bianka, as well as N perhaps... Mabey, mabey not.

A: No, I don't think I will. I have much things happening in the chapters that are left and I really don't want to take a break for a chapter to tell you about a relatively boring journey of characters that are not very central to the plot.

Q: Also, what happened to Toxica? Wasent she suposed to do something amasing ith this particular battle? *or was it a battle to come...?* We lost sight of her in the battle with Deago even thoe we swiched for a split second to Octa's POV. That was the only thing that buged me about this chapter ~What hapend to Toxica?~

A: She fought with Aqua for a while, but got a piece of rubble on her head when the tower began collapsing, which allowed Aqua to go after Boreas and Diego after taking some care of her. I'll let you make your own judgment about Golurk's prophecy.

Glaceon34: Q: dammit,you...you can be even worse than Diego for toying with my emotion like that!

A: Well, he did come from my mind, after all.

Q: To tell the truth, when I read what Diego did I actually CRY, with all that emotion I go straight to the review and about to rant about how cruel and how i hate you for killing Aqua! TAKE me freaking 10 minutes to calm down and finish the chapter only to find out that she is still alive! In the end, i have to rewrite the entire review but if Aqua live then it completely worth it!

A: It makes me feel very good that you feel so strongly about my characters. Making it seem like Aqua had really died was one of the reasons I switched perspective to Octa there; it is kind of one of my pet peeves that when someone who is wounded in a film or something says "it's too late..." then it always automatically really is too late. After all, someone who is severely wounded and in a lot of pain is hardly in any condition to determine their own condition, and it can be surprising what you can live through anyway.

Q: huh, I calm down now, and Zeph, I have vaugely guessed it might be him since you said that we help met him in the beginning and in all the story I don't think we have seen Black met many if any wild pokemon at all.

A: I deliberately constructed the hints so that they seemed to point to Aqua: she appeared right in chapter one, and there's a very good reason she wouldn't join the team: she hates humans. Of course, Zeph was introduced in chapter two and there's a very good reason he wouldn't join the team as well: he's dead.

For All That Remains: Q: First off, this is one of the best things I've read on this site, period. The characters are esy to get attached to, and the storyline, while based off of another, seems to take on a life of its own after a while.

A: Thank you. It is always great to hear things like that.

Q: Well, well... It seems I was a bit closer than I thought.

A: Yeah, your prediction was close; though not entirely right, as she survived it.

Q:And what of hellhound and chicken?

A: I can't give you any definite answers here; I'm not anywhere near sure about them myself. But I don't really think they fancy each other, though they are indeed, in their own way, friends. I intend to deal with this matter soon wither way.

Q: Oh, in case you were wondering; I actually caught a Volkswagon. Seriously, it's in my driveway right now, though the cops are less than thrilled with me...

A: Congrats.

KidChimaera00: Q: I haven't felt the urge to kick a zoroark in the crotch this much in a while.

A: That's Boreas' job.

Rattlez: Q: ZEPH! HE'S BACK! :D Does this mean the rest of the family's back?

A: No, sadly. They died and were eaten by the Zangeese.


	52. The Calm Before the Storm

Chapter Fifty-Two: The Calm Before the Storm

Boreas was beginning to think teaching Aqua chess had been a big mistake. He had figured that since she was now allowed and able to move her upper body, though her rear legs were still firmly paralysed, teaching her the game would keep her from getting too bored. She had turned out to be a natural, already beating him though he'd thought her only three days ago. At least, that was what it looked like at this moment. Boreas was not very good at chess himself, lacking the patience to plan his moves out in advance. When he played with Octa, the Servine usually managed to beat him. But losing to someone with three days of experience would be a bit sad.

Yet that was what it looked like right now. He had lost a knight and a bishop quite early, but then things had calmed down for a while. But then, during a big exchange of pawns, Aqua had managed to land her rook on the second row, right between Boreas' pieces. And there seemed nothing he could do about it; the powerful black piece just sat there between his white pieces while he was at a big disadvantage with less material.

"Give up yet?" Aqua grinned. "You know I'm going to beat you."

"Nonsense," Boreas stammered. "I can still win this!" Things were dire, though, with Aqua's rook right in the middle of his pieces, while his queen was caught up on the side of the board, holding off an attack.

Aqua chuckled as he made his move and she took one of his pawns. "I like this game."

"What, my darling Aqua liking something humans made?" Boreas teased as he attacked the enemy rook in his ranks, forcing it to retreat. "What has the world come to?"

Aqua quickly retreated her endangered rook, but she still had a great advantage. "Just because I don't like humans doesn't mean I have to hate everything they made. I like this game, just like I like the fact that they can heal my back. I just don't like _them_."

Boreas couldn't resist pursuing this, while it was clear he was losing more and more, losing several pieces rapidly. "You know, if Team Plasma succeeds in separating humans and pokémon, pokémon won't get to have these benefits of living with humans any more. No more chess; no more medicine. To say nothing of friendship and all the other reasons pokémon stay with humans."

"But neither will they have to be pushed around by human taskmasters or have their freedom taken away by captors. You're a lucky one, Boreas, to have found a trainer who is friendly to you, but many pokémon are not so lucky to have found an exception. Most humans are horrid. Look at the ones who murdered Lothario. Look at the humans who pollute nature and let their cities expand endlessly. Look at all the humans who think only of money and power and will do anything to get more, even at the cost of lives. Look, even, at Team Plasma's seven Sages. Good humans are the exception."

The game was really going bad for Boreas. His pieces were heavily outnumbered, and he was attacked from all sides. It would not be long now before his king would be checkmated. "You're wrong, Aqua. The good humans aren't the exception; the evil ones are. Yes, there are truly despicable humans; villains and egotists and horrid self-centred money-lovers, but most of them are not like that. Most of them are kind and basically decent people."

"I wish I could share your faith in them, but I don't. That's why I'm going back to Team Plasma after I heal. I hope you understand."

Boreas looked into her eyes. "I didn't expect otherwise. Though it would be great fun, being on the same side for a while. We could spend every day together..."

Aqua giggled. "We already are spending every day together now, love."

"Yeah," Boreas winked, "but with your back broken and people walking in and out of the room all the time we have to play chess instead of games that are more fun."

Giggling, Aqua moved a pawn, getting very close to checkmate now. "It's a good thing you're better at those games than at chess, my love."

But Boreas saw she'd made a mistake that allowed him a single possibility of a surprising victory. With a grin, he took Aqua's rook with his own rook. Next turn, he sacrificed it to let him checkmate her king. "Checkmate," he declared with a grin.

–

Toxica entered her guest bedroom. She closed the door, let herself fall onto the soft, warm bed and finally dropped the mask she'd hidden behind all day. The tears of rage and betrayal that had stung behind her eyes every time she had seen Octa laugh at something Aurora said, or when he had looked at her finally streamed over her face. She sobbed in the mattress, furious at everyone in the mansion, including herself.

How could she have ever been so arrogant to think she'd stand a chance with Octa? She was nothing compared to Aurora. Aurora was so incredibly graceful and elegant and beautiful; her every movement and word made it obvious Toxica was nothing next to her. While she had never considered herself anywhere near ugly, it seemed as if the very essence of beauty and grace had been caught in Aurora, as if a clear, starlit night with all five moons out at once had turned into a single gorgeous creature. While she realised deep inside that these thoughts were perhaps a little overdramatic, she thought with a sob that Aurora wasn't merely beautiful, it was more like every single beautiful thing in the universe was a pale reflection of Aurora Invicta. And to make matters worse, she was a shiny pokémon. Toxica had heard of the alternatively-coloured shiny pokémon, of course, but never actually seen one; only one in eight-thousand pokémon was shiny, after all. It made Aurora even more special: a gorgeous, elegant, shiny Servine of highly noble blood. By contrast, Toxica was just some Vileplume. Toxica would bet anything Aurora had never cried in despair like this, nor would she ever need to.

Toxica was certain she was going to lose Octa now. Aurora was just too perfect. Even aside from her incredible beauty and elegance, she was very friendly and charming and nice, and so much more. Everyone, especially Octa, had taken such a great liking to her. Even Toxica begrudgingly had to admit that if it wasn't for the enormous jealousy she felt against the gorgeous Servine, she would probably like her a lot as well. Octa's family was clearly enamoured with the idea of having Aurora as their daughter-in-law, while most of them merely tolerated Toxica's presence because she was Octa's friend.

_Hah, "friend" indeed, _she thought bitterly. _I want nothing more to do with 'im. I've had it. He knew what was going to 'appen when we got here, that's why he was so nervous all the time. He deliberately took me with him so I could see the moment when I lost him forever with my own eyes! Evil, smug bastard, I hate him!_

She heard a soft knock on the door and startled, realising her eyes were red and swollen from the crying and tears still streamed down her face. "J-just a moment!" she said, trying to keep her voice from breaking. She wiped the tears away from her eyes and adjusted her flower in such a way that it obscured her eyes from whoever was going to come through the door, as she sat down on the bed. "E-enter!"

The door opened and she saw the underside of an elegant blue serpentine body. "I came here to apologise to you," a beautiful voice said.

Toxica looked up in surprise, seeing the gorgeous, sapphire Aurora stand in the door. Then she remembered herself and looked down again to hide her red, teary eyes. "I-I don't know what for, milady," she sobbed, cursing herself for how much it sounded like she was crying.

Aurora ignored her words. "I realise how much Octa must mean to you. He told me you have travelled together for over a year."

"What more did he tell you?" Toxica snarled angrily.

"Nothing pertaining to your emotions, I can assure you. But they were not difficult to infer from your behaviour. Since you evidently feel very strongly for him, I feel I must apologise for taking him away from you."

Toxica really had to hold herself back from using powerful poison attacks on Aurora. She looked into Aurora's eyes like two emeralds, seething with anger and not caring about protocol or courtesy any more. "Oh, you apologise; that's great. You're gonna marry the love of my life, but it's alright, as you apologised to me!"

Aurora's expression remained fairly neutral. "This is not my choice. It is quite simply the tradition of out houses; even a rule, one might say. However, on occasion rules have been breached. Since you evidently feel so strongly for Octa, I shan't be offended if he chooses to reciprocate your feelings and choose you instead of me, In which case I shall consent to have the plans for our union be suspended."

Toxica wished Aurora wouldn't be so compassionate and friendly to her. It would be so much simpler if she could just treat her horribly and she could hate her gorgeous guts in return. With a shock, she realised Aurora was actually doing her a favour, and now she had to _thank_ her greatest enemy. "Thank. You," she spat. "Not that it will matter a pair of dingo's kidneys anyway; there's no way he'll choose me over someone as perfect as you."

"I disagree. He seemed to talk quite a lot about you today and glanced at you several times, which both seem clear signs of romantic interest to me. 'Tis clear to me he is quite attracted to you; he merely needs to decide whether his priority lies in his duty to his family or his enamouration towards you."

"Nice try," grimaced Toxica, "but his eyes were glued to yours all the time. He fancied me before, but after meeting you he doesn't any more, and I almost can't blame him. Thanks for trying to cheer me up, but it's not gonna work."

"I am truly sorry to hear that," said Aurora as she left the room. "Know, though, that, should Octa decide he will defy his family's decision, I will not object and shall endeavour to convince my own family not to either." With a courteous, elegant gesture she left the room and closed the door.

Now Toxica was just confused. She tried to hate Aurora again, but after she had pledged her support if Octa chose for her, she found that hard. She was pretty angry with the Servine for being so nice to her, though. She groaned in annoyance. Why had Octa taken her here anyway? That thought really made her furious. Why kind of jerk tells a girl he likes her, and then takes her to see his bloody perfect new mate? What kind of horrible person would do that? Toxica trembled in anger. First he had toyed with her feelings for a year, and now this? She got up and walked out of her door. She was going to tell that horrible smug bastard just what she thought of that. She was going to tell him this was not how you treated a girl. She was going to tell him she hated him and wanted nothing more to do with him, and then she would leave and take the train back to Icirrus, where she had _real_ friends.

She walked through the dark corridors of the impressive mansion to Octa's room. She burst open the door. "I'm gonna talk to you and I'm gonna do it right now!" she yelled.

Octa lay in his bed and shot up straight with a start when she entered. "What in the name of- Toxica, are you out of your mind? You cannot be here, my family shall-"

"To hell with your family!" Toxica shouted as she closed the door behind her and walked to the feet end of Octa's bed. "You're gonna talk to me, or I'm gonna poison you!"

"What the devil has gotten into you?" asked Octa angrily.

"Jealousy, perhaps!" yelled Toxica. "Tell me, did you know your family was gonna get you your mate?"

Octa looked at her angrily from his bed. Toxica saw only now that there were several portraits depicting Octa and his family on the walls, at least the bits that weren't covered in filled bookcases. "Yes, I did. But I-"

"And yet," spat Toxica, "you took me here. You knew how I felt about you! You even told me you fancied me as well! And then you take me with you so I can watch you being lost to me forever!"

"Please," Octa whispered sharply,"keep your voice down, or my family will hear!"

If she kept her voice down, she couldn't have the satisfaction of yelling at Octa. So she had a better idea: she jumped onto the bed angrily, making Octa yelp as she landed on top of him, so she could talk normally yet feel like she was shouting at him because they were so close by it sounded like it.

"Are you insane?" whispered Octa angrily. "What will anyone entering the room think?"

"I don't care!" said Toxica, her face close to Octa's in anger. "All I want to know is what _you_ were thinking, bringing me along to this! Do you have any idea idea how painful this is to me?"

Octa searched for words under her. "I... Well, that is... I... I am not quite sure why I asked you to accompany me, to be quite frank. I had originally asked Boreas, but he refused as he needed to stay with his beloved."

"So you decided to have some fun breakin' my 'eart instead?" Toxica yelled.

"Keep. It. Down," hissed Octa as he pushed her flower up so he could better talk to her face. "I did not do it intentionally!"

"Oh no, I'm sure it was an accident! Tell me the truth, or taste Poisonpowder!"

"Yes, it was an accident! After Boreas declined, I tried to think of someone else to accompany me, but the truth is there was no-one suitable, so I decided to go by myself! But when I talked to you to say goodbye, the invitation to join me just slipped out of my mouth without thinking! I could not retract it, therefore I took you with me, though I knew it'd be horrible for you!"

Toxica furiously pressed her face closer to his. "Don't lie to me, you smug bastard! I know you don't do things like that! You are not a spontaneous person; you always think things over before you do them!"

"Not always!" hissed Octa angrily. "I may generally be a thoughtful person, but on occasion I do spontaneous things! And they usually turn out to be mistakes!"

"No, you don't! You never do that!"

"Yes, I do!" Octa hissed as he suddenly thrust his face forward and kissed her. Toxica meeped in surprise as their lips found each other slightly awkwardly due to her flower and his snout being slightly in the way. She was torn between anger and love, but returned the kiss as they both collapsed into a lying position while continuing to smooch. The flames of rage that burned inside Toxica confusedly warmed her with love now as well.

As they broke apart, they stared at each other for a while, Toxica still lying on top of Octa. She had no idea what to do now. On the one hand she felt like punching him, on the other hand she felt like kissing him again, on another hand she felt like shouting some more at him, on yet another hand she felt like getting up and leaving the room, and on one more hand she felt like asking him what the hell he was thinking, kissing her after treating her so horribly. _Things are really bad when your mind thinks you've got five hands... _she thought.

To break the awkward moment, she lowered her head, turning it to avoid Octa's pointy snout more easily, and kissed him again. For a moment all was well as they relished in the kiss, then they stopped.

"There was another reason, besides spontaneousness, that I invited you here," Octa whispered. "I wished you would protest when my family disclosed the reason they had invited me to return..."

"But... If you wanted me to protest, why didn't you do that yourself?"

"It... I am ashamed to admit this, but 'tis very hard to make my wishes clear to my family... It would have been so much easier if you had protested and I could simply express my agreement... You must understand, 'tis very difficult to oppose centuries of tradition when one's own family wishes one to follow it..."

Toxica had never seen Octa look so vulnerable as he lay under her and admitted his feelings. While that reasoning possibly made her even angrier than the thought that he had invited her along out of malice, she couldn't resist giving him a quick kiss again, hungry for the taste of his lips. "You wanted me to bite the bullet for you... You placed the responsibility with me! That's so spineless, I thought you were braver than that! I've seen you fight terrifying opponents and continue in the face of certain death, but your own family's reaction scares you?"

Octa nodded with a blush, probably out of a plethora of different emotions, like the blush Toxica now had. "I love them more than anything. Because of that, they can hurt me more than anything... If choosing for you meant losing their love... I would have to choose for Aurora, no matter what. I am truly sorry for that... Please, Toxica... Go now... I-I need to think. I need to decide upon my choice... I need to be alone..."

Toxica nodded, gave him another quick kiss, though she had to resist the urge to bite or punch him in anger, and got off the bed. "Aurora just visited me," she said, trying to keep her voice as neutral as possible though a tornado of emotions raged through her. "She realised how we feel about each other and gave you her blessing if you wished to break with your family's wishes."

"That is very considerate of her," said Octa. "But I do not believe it shall affect my decision. Good night, Toxica, and please let us pretend this conversation never took place until I make my decision."

Toxica left the room, feeling even more confused than before. She was even more angry with Octa for treating her the way he had, and still continued to do, and part of her wanted to go back inside and yell at him some more or even to hurt him. Yet another part of her was having trouble even standing, realising she had just snogged Octa; several times even. She giggled and blushed like a seedling as she thought about it. She had certainly liked the taste of him, and that part of her really wanted to go back inside and kiss him some more. Another part of her wanted nothing to do with anything and most wanted to go back to her room and get some sleep before she went completely nuts. And there were dozens more parts of her, each wanting different things and feeling differently. She felt as if her mind had been blown to smithereens and inexpertly glued back together, yet still obviously being more of a collection of parts than a single whole. She sighed as she walked back to her room, dozens of emotions and thoughts raging through her. It wouldn't be easy to get to sleep tonight.

–

Boreas stayed with Aqua for much of the time, which was easy as Black's room was in the pokécenter; except at night, when the hospital wards were closed to visitors. Yet he wasn't always with her; this evening, Boreas was wandering outside, restless from staying in a single place for so long. The White mountains were all around Icirrus, and Boreas really wanted to climb them and to see what was on the other side. But he couldn't go and explore because Aqua needed him and because news of the Light Stone could appear at any moment, requiring immediate action.

He sighed as he looked at the Sun setting behind the mountains, annoyed that he had to stay in Icirrus. He couldn't even help with the war at the moment, because they didn't know any of Team Plasma's bases of operation so the trainers could only defend. And they were not doing a very good job at that either.

Boreas heard rustling noises like something flying clumsily and a poking stab in his shoulder as Selene landed there. "Hi, Boreas. Do you ever miss Capella?"

Boreas was taken aback by the sudden personal question. "Um... Yes, quite often. I miss her friendship and her wisdom a lot." he shivered as the horrific sight of her corpse came back to him, trying to put it out of his mind.

"Me too... She was a very green person. Inside, I mean."

"I'm... Sure she was," Boreas said, trying to shake off the terrifying image of how she had actually looked quite red inside.

Selene sighed. "I liked her burial, though. Octa said some things that I think were the right things to say, and Black dug her grave well. And then he scratched her name into a big stone in big, angular letters... It felt so final once the stone said 'Capella,' didn't it?"

Boreas nodded. "It did... That day was the beginning of the worst time of my life... We lost a great friend that day..." a thoughtful silence fell for a while.

"You've gotten a lot heavier since evolving," Boreas remarked as his shoulder was beginning to feel tired.

He heard someone dragging his feet as he walked, looked behind him and saw Zeph. "Zeph!" he called as he caught up to his brother, Selene still tiring his shoulder with her increased weight.

Zeph startled slightly, but cheerfully greeted him once he recognised his brother. "Boreas, I didn't expect to see you here! I thought you'd be in the pokécenter, caring for that cutie Vaporeon who's been swallowing my nephews and nieces!"

Boreas' frown contrasted Zeph's broad grin. "Classy, Zeph. I'll slap you if you ever make that joke again."

Zeph guffawed. "Okay, okay, I'm sorry. You look just like Dad when he scolded us for being bad right now, y'know."

Boreas couldn't resist cracking a smile as he teased Zeph. "Well, now I know what he must've felt like; it's not easy having to raise someone as immature as you."

"I'm not immature, _you're _immature!" said Zeph, sticking his tongue out.

Boreas rolled his eyes and decided to talk about something else. "Where were you anyway?"

"When?" asked Zeph, innocently.

"You know what I mean," Boreas pressed.

"I have no idea."

"Were were you most of the afternoon? In fact, most of most afternoons. You always disappear somewhere, and I'm going to follow you there if you don't tell me where it is."

Zeph shrugged. "I don't know what you mean."

Boreas grinned slyly. "Yes you do... And come to think of it, I think I do too... I don't imagine you had much time to spend with girls while you were travelling through Unova to find me?"

"I guess," said Zeph, pretending he had no idea where Boreas was going with the question.

"Yet you are as old as me, though you may act like a cub. And we both know that with age come certain desires. So all I have left to ask is: who's the lucky girl?"

"Uh," said Zeph, a blush under his fur making his cheeks appear slightly redder than normal, "I suppose Aqua is quite a lucky girl, for having the luck that I caught up to you at just the right moment to save her life. Other than that, I can't really think of any particularly lucky girls."

Boreas grinned. "Fine, keep your secret; I'm sure she's lovely, strange though her taste may be." Boreas would go on teasing his brother, but the way he was dragging his feet over the ground was really getting on his nerves. "By the way, could you quit shuffling and lift up your feet when you walk? The sound is pretty annoying."

Grateful for the chance to talk about something else, Zeph latched on to this new conversational direction, though he kept dragging his feet over the ground. "Why? I like walking like this."

"Because you're going to grate your feet off, by the sound of it," said Boreas.

Zeph shrugged. "It hasn't happened yet, and I've walked across Unova like this."

"Fine, walk however you like, but if you do grate off your feet you'd better hope your Audino-friend Aesclepius can heal them like he did with your throat. Hey, that reminds me: I chatted with the nurse's Audino and mentioned how you had survived the Zangeese attacking, and he was very impressed. He said he'd never even heard of an Audino managing to heal an injury as severe as that outside of a pokécenter, and that you'd be dead if it had been him who had found you."

"Oh?" Zeph was surprised. "I didn't realise it was that impressive. But then, Aesclepius is very skilled."

Boreas nodded. "He sounded very impressed. I guess I'm really lucky for such skilled medics like him and Nurse Ebola, or I'd have lost both you and Aqua and I'd be all alone and very, very depressed now."

"_I_'d still be here," said Selene. "You wouldn't be all alone."

"Well, that's right. But you're just a friend, not my brother or my girlfriend." Boreas had an idea. "Hey, Zeph. Do you think you could persuade Aesclepius to join the war on our side? We could really use someone with his skill if we ever meet a Sage again."

Zeph thought for a while. "No; it seems impossible. He is very old, Boreas; he might be dead by now for all I know. He's certainly not going to come with us and travel to all sides of Unova to fight. Besides, he's not that fond of trainers catching pokémon. He's probably not interested in taking sides in this war."

They entered the pokécenter and soon ran into Black, who had packed his bags. "Boreas, Selene, Zephyrus, finally! We have to go right now! Lenora knows where we can find the Light Stone!"

–

Boreas entered Aqua's room, feeling ashamed of what he was about to do. How could he break his promise to her? Yet he had to; this was too important for him to stay here. "A-Aqua?" he asked.

Aqua smiled happily as she saw him. "Boreas, my- what's wrong?"

"Well..." Boreas said, avoiding eye contact. "Lenora has discovered where the Light Stone holding Reshiram is... We need to travel to Nacrene so she can tell us, as X-transceiver conversations could be monitored by Team Plasma, and it's very important they don't find the stone before us... And when she tells us where it is, we'll... go there to find it... So as much as it pains me, I have to leave. I know I promised you not to leave you, but this is incredibly important..."

Aqua was silent for a while. "You say this is incredibly important," she said in flat tones, "but am _I_ not incredibly important to you as well? I need you here by my side, Boreas! You can't leave me with the humans-" she stopped herself and took a few deep breaths. "I'm sorry. That's... very unfair of me. I understand. You need to go. I only wish I wouldn't have to stay here alone with all these humans..."

Boreas felt very bad for leaving her, but really admired that she was willing to let him go, meaning she'd be confronted with her two greatest fears at once: loneliness and humans. Boreas walked to her bed, softly stroked her ears, and gave her a lengthy farewell kiss. "Thank you, my brave Aqua... I'm so sorry for this."

Aqua looked into his eyes and said: "Don't die and make me regret not keeping you to your promise."

"I'm not planning to," said Boreas. "By the way, I'll get Black to call the pokécenter every day so we can talk."

–

Days had passed without Octa making a decision. Toxica wished he'd hurry up so she could either kiss him some more or get furious at him and leave to go back to the team. They had not said a single word about the sudden smooching several days before, but a clear tension was present whenever both were in the same room. While Octa's family seemed to be making sure Octa and Aurora spent as much time together as possible, it seemed to Toxica that Octa was at least not continuing to deepen their relationship right now, and fortunately Aurora seemed content to wait.

But Toxica had even more pressing concerns than Octa's heart now. Octa's siblings Livia and Marcus Aurelius, who had been scouting the rough plains around the mansion, returned with alarming news: they had spotted a big attack by Team Plasma, led by two Sages. From their descriptions, Octa and Toxica recognised Rood, the Dutch fire-type master who Octa had battled on Route 3, near where she had met him a few weeks later; and Zinzolin, the French poison-type master who they had both battled in his company's large cold storage facility in Driftveil. While Crimson breeders bred other pokémon as well, the Equinox line of Serperiors was by far the most numerous and powerful of them, and it seemed Team Plasma had specifically chosen Sages they'd have a hard time fighting. Toxica wished she wasn't a grass-type as well; being a ground-type would be really useful now.

Most of the Equinoctes were discussing their strategy together; while Lord Publius Cornelius had the last word as the family's leader, many others disagreed with him about the specific strategy. Octa's older brother Gaius, who was - unlike his three siblings - already a Serperior, was especially vocal in his idea to build a wooden palisade around the mansion. Toxica had only met him a few days ago, and she found little to like about him, while she was reasonably close to all three of his siblings. But Gaius seemed to treat her with contempt rivalled only by Galaxia.

They were discussing their strategy when one of the humans running Crimson breeders suddenly showed up at the mansion. It was rare that the humans came here, but in this case it was to hand his X-transceiver to Octa. Toxica looked along with him, and saw Black on the little screen.

"Octa, Toxica," he said. "Lenora knows where we can find the Light Stone. Vacation is over; you need to come to Nacrene immediately, we'll meet you there."

"I'm sorry, old chap," said Octa, "but I can not. My family is about to be attacked by Team Plasma and I will help them defend. Toxica might join you however."

"No way!" said Toxica. "I'm staying right here!"

"Oh, good," said Black, clearly not understanding a word of it as usual. "I'll see you in Nacrene, then."

"No," Octa spoke slowly, as if it would help Black understand better. "We – are – staying – here."

Black smiled. "Yes, I'm looking forward to seeing you again too."

"In the name of-" Octa exclaimed. "NO."

"Look, we have to hurry to catch the train to Nacrene, so- what's wrong, Boreas. Hey, let go! Give it back!" Boreas had swiped the X-transceiver from Black's hands and now his somewhat triangular face was in the screen.

"Sorry for that," he said.

"My dear fellow," Octa beamed. "'Tis very good to see you again. We shan't join you yet; Team Plasma is attacking my ancestral home and my family needs our help defending."

"I'll try to make that clear to Black. Good luck."

"Thank you." Octa looked at Toxica. "I apologise, but there is something I need to discuss with Boreas alone."

"There is?" asked Boreas.

Toxica stood up. "Okay, I get the message," she said as she walked away and left Octa in private.

–

AUTHOR'S NOTES: This chapter feels a bit like a second part to the previous chapter; but there was a lot of stuff to deal with yet. Of course, next chapter will have lots of action again.

Also, apparently three reviews disappeared D: This story had 178, but just now I saw it had dropped down to 175. I hope no-one is deleting their reviews; because I truly appreciate every single one.

FEEDBACK: Arcane1ManaX: Q: Light stone, not Dark stone.

N already has Zekrom, who came from the Dark Stone.

Black is going to get Reshiram, who comes from the Light stone.

A: You're absolutely right; I corrected it.

UNKNOWN: Q: Whoa, Spock, you really put up good arguments. You got me completely convinced on your side. Are you, like, a motivational speaker, a teacher, or even a lawyer? You would probably do great at these things.

A: No, I'm not a motivational speaker or a teacher, and would rather tear off my own head and feed it to the dog than be a lawyer. I don't know why you consider my arguments so great; all I do is make sure my arguments are logical and non-stupid. Which, I guess, puts me above some people in terms of arguing skill. And of course, the fact that I thought of the story in the first place puts me in a good position when it comes to arguing things about it, as I have probably given it more thought than anyone else.

Q: Curious question came to mind: would Lucius actually get along with Zeph? Okay, probably same treatment as Boreas. I just got a feeling.

A: Depends on what you mean by 'getting along with', I guess. It's not easy with Lucius.

Q: Ouch, having a broken back for 2 MONTHS? Guess it's something that can't be healed with a Heal Pulse and a Potion or two...

A: In the real world, it's a permanent injury (well, the bone can heal, but the nerves inside are lost forever), so Aqua is still lucky. But it's not an easy task to heal it indeed.

RuningWitSizorz: Q: Hello. I have finally stopped flipping out. Why was I flipping out you may ask? Because of what you did to my favorite character in these last few chapters. Was it Aqua having her back broken? No, although I felt sad at that part, I red the rest of that chap so it was all good. No... Whom my favorite character is... Tis Toxica. THERE! I AMDITTED IT! I tried my damndest to pretend like she wasn't my favorite character but she is! I was going to point out that she wasn't fighting Deigo with Aqua but I figured you would explain that in the next chapter, which you did... But how you ended this chapter makes me wanna put are 'high and mighty nobel blooded, well bred, jerk face' Onto my top three most hated characters of this story list. Pushing out the zangeese(?) that killed everyone's (abit my second fav character by just a smidge) Glaceon's family! (Well most of it anyways...) and joining Deigo and his Not-so-Great Aunt! Why kind of jerk tells a girl he likes them, then takes them to see his new mate? X(

A: Yeah, it was a very mean thing for him to do, as Toxica confronted him with. I hope you can forgive him, though. Love can do strange things to a person.

TrueBolt: Q: And as for my embarrassingly long paragraph on -finger quotes- religion, that was mostly ment for you personaly. Although I am rather vexed as to what you mean by 'changed it' as I have not gone to the actual reviews page, and would rather it be simply deleted than changed. I am solely responsible for what I say and I don't want to send a wrong message to anyone.

A: That is exactly what I did: I deleted that section from your comment.

Q: Another one of my signature crazy ideas... Does Boreas learn anymore unique moves like his frost concussion? That would be awsome. An epic and original move is alwase welcome in my book.

A: Well, he has already used one. In chapter 40, when fighting Aqua, he uses a pulse of cold which is not really intended to be any kind of in-game move. It's pretty powerful too.

Q: Not much else to say accept for the obvious, if I had $10,000 I would commission you to finish the story in a maximum of two weeks.

A: And I would tell you to keep it; there's far too much yet ahead to finish it in two weeks without it being awful. (Well, actually I would take it and then tell you I can't finish it in two weeks, as I could really use 10000, but that is aside)

The Bulbafinatic: Q: That must be why you sent Toxica and Octa off to the House of Equinox! And now there's ANOTHER empty slot. Two, if Aqua still doesn't want to travel with Black. So... the question is...

What happens next?

A: Don't worry, they're not off the team, merely temporarily in another location. If they survive the coming battle, they'll rejoin the team.

Q: I look back at [chapter 22] because you mentioned it, and I only JUST realized how your statement about "the Pidoves and the Combees" comes from "the birds and the bees". Wow. I'm that slow.

A: Yes, that's indeed what she meant by that. She was (surprise, surprise) flirting with Boreas.

JHawkeye9000: Q: Will the fighting type master from Chapter 27 ever return or was he just there to help Boreas learn ice beam?

A: You'll see.

For All That Remains: Q: Okay, before I review, I should say this; I don't have a problem with you adding guns into this story.

A: You may not, but I do. If I was interest in writing gunfights, I'd be writing something set in the wild west, or WWII, or something, not pokémon.

Q: But please, for the love of God, don't use a Desert Eagle!

A: Alright.

Glaceon34: Q: 9:10pm:start reading, chapter's name is really creepy.

A: Heh, it just refers to Zeph. But, given Aqua's condition at the end of the previous chapter it's perhaps not surprising that it sounds ominous.

Q: 9.15 : wow Boreas sure have grow more suspicious

A: I'd call it sceptical instead. After all, Zeph has been dead for more than a year, and he's seen him die; while the Flareon might look like Zeph the similarity isn't that great because he evolved since. It's only logical to assume it's a trick unless compelling evidence proves otherwise.

Q: 9.18 :Helen as in the woman in Eternal forest? That is a lvl 1000 audino right there :)

A: I don't know any woman named Helen in Eterna Forest; and if there is I didn't mean her; it was just a name I picked.

Q: 9.26 : what? is this a dream?

A: No. This is what a human looks like through Aqua's eyes. We are Cthulhu.

Q: 9.33 : should I understand what Selene say in the last part of the conversation

A: It's Selene. That means no.

Q: 9.35 :nice save octa

A: He's evidently not quite comfortable with telling Boreas he loves him.

Q: 9.38 : can you just let it go and mind your own bussiness Boreas,jeez

A: Considering he promised Capella and Octa's about to make a really bad choice for himself, he can't.

Q: in order to avoid another out brust like the last chapter, I change to this type of review so I can let my emotion flow freely, it is not good for your health to bottle up things :D

A: It's as good a way as any to do it, so if you like to review like this, go ahead.


	53. For Equinox and Honour

Chapter Fifty-Three: For Equinox and Honour

When Toxica returned to the main hall to leave Octa to talk to Boreas in private, she saw Aurora talking spiritedly to a Servine she hadn't met yet. He looked rather less noble and more scruffy than the others here. Perhaps it was the scars and slightly dirty scales, or maybe the uninhibited and unashamed anger on his face that made him seem less noble than the others, though oddly enough he also reminded her of Aurora. Toxica decided she had to introduce herself, went to him and made a respectful bow. "A good day to you, noble sir," she greeted him in the way Octa had thought her. "My name is Toxica, houseless, and I am delighted to make your acquaintance."

The Servine looked at her with surprise. "I'm Niernen," he said with a surprising lack of protocol. "I didn't expect to see a Vileplume here; I didn't think ancestry-obsessed pokémon were all that keen on other species, especially if you're, as you say, houseless."

"Be quiet, brother," said Aurora with an oddly cracking voice. Toxica noticed only now that the gorgeous blue Servine was under great emotional anguish, though her perfect face only betrayed slight hints of it. "As you said, this is not the time for another argument. Toxica, I apologise, but I need to talk to my brother, for he has brought me most distressing news of the death of our parents in battle against Team Plasma."

"Oh," gasped Toxica. "I-I'm so sorry... I'll go talk to someone else, then..."

Feeling sad for Aurora and her brother, she decided to go to the big table where their strategy was being discussed to try and put her mind off it. The plan was to ambush Team Plasma between the high plants of the plains; according to Livia and Marcus, most of Team Plasma's pokémon were inside their pokéballs as they approached the mansion. If they could outflank them from three sides and suddenly attack them, it would be an easy victory, especially if they could knock out the humans before they could release more pokémon. Suggestions to quickly erect a wall around the breeding centre or just the mansion had been rejected as it would be a lot of work and would probably not be all that effective; the mansion just wasn't built with defensive capabilities in mind. It had a very large, welcoming entrance and was made more to impress than to defend. After the plans had been made and they all prepared to set out, Lord Publius Cornelius came to Toxica.

"Young Vileplume," he said in his pleasant voice. "There is no need for you to accompany us. This battle is not yours to fight; go back to the nearby village and utilise a train to return to your trainer from there."

While the powerful fire and poison types coming this way made that a very attractive idea, something in Toxica resisted. "My lord, with all due respect, I believe this _is _my battle to fight. Octa is my friend, and I'd like to think of your daughter as a friend as well. It wouldn't be right for me to leave them."

"I understand. You are truly a brave Vileplume, yet I would prefer you to leave. You see, I have to be certain I can count on each and every one of those fighting for me if I am to command this battle well. Furthermore, if your life were to come into danger during the battle and a member of my house was able to prevent it, they would be honour-bound to defend you, risking their more valuable blood being spilt instead of your own lesser blood. You must understand, this is a risk I cannot take."

"If you don't shut yer trap right now, this 'lesser-blooded' girl's gonna spill some of that oh-so valuable blood for you, you arrogant tosser!" was something Toxica nearly said as she ignited in anger. Fortunately, she managed to hold herself back from saying that and forced a smile onto her face instead.

"But," she said, trying to keep her voice and face calm, "if I join you, I'll also be able to defend your family. In fact, my poison attacks would add some highly-needed variety into your force. I'm more than capable of handling myself in battle, just ask Octa." When Lord Publius frowned, she added: "My lord."

"Very well, I do not have time to argue about it any more. We leave now."

–

Between the grass of Route 7, as high as a tall human, it was not that hard to ambush their enemy. All they needed was to let some of them scout ahead so they could find out the exact position of the enemy, and they could attack the enemy from three sides, leaving one side open so the enemy had a chance to flee. This seemed counter-intuitive to Toxica, but Marcus explained that if they surrounded the enemy completely, they would all fight to the bitter end, while if they surrounded them only partially, the more cowardly enemies would break and flee once things went bad. At least, that was the plan, because Livia came back with bad news:

"They know we're ambushing."

"What?"

"How?"

"I do not understand either... We are quite certain they did not detect us whilst we scouted ahead, yet now they have released all their pokémon and are travelling in a spread out formation, with scouts of their own that will make an ambush impossible."

"Perchance 'tis simply a precaution as they approach the mansion?"

"They are still kilometres away; they must somehow know we detected them and are planning a counter attack."

"I believe I know how they knew we knew they were attacking," said Galaxia. "Treason. There is a traitor amongst us, a mole if you will, who communicated our plans to the enemy. I also believe I know the identity of this mole. A lowly creature of befouled blood who has been attempting to wrench her way into our house by seducing Octavianus, the potential heir to the title of our leader, my nephew, the illustrious Lord Publius Cornelius, with her despicable wiles, in order to befoul our bloodline forever with her lowly blood."

Toxica couldn't hold herself back and yelled: "You hideous old b-" she was cut off as Octa stepped forward, "accidentally" giving her a big push that shut her up as he stepped past her.

"That is a very serious accusation, great-aunt," he said in firm tones. "To make an accusation of this scale directed at a guest to our house is a deep dishonour I hadn't considered you capable of."

"He's right, great-aunt," Livia agreed. "Without compelling evidence, you insult our house's honour by making such an accusation against our esteemed guest, regardless of her ancestral status."

Galaxia was taken aback by the fact that both Octa and Toxica were arguing against her. "Be quiet, misguided younglings. Do not propose to lecture your elder on honour after associating with lower-born creatures. The only evidence I need is lowly descent, coupled with the fact that a mole is the only way this information could have reached Team Plasma's ears. The only contact we know of that any of us have had with others since discovering this attack was the X-transceiver conversation Octavianus conducted, and because of the short distance between host and recipient that could not have been intercepted, for this technology is based on direct transmission between apparati when used over relatively short ranges."

"Your logic is highly faulty," said Octa, "and I believe merely based upon your distrust of commoners; after travelling with Toxica for over a year, I have every reason to believe she is as trustworthy as any of us. In fact," he drew a breath to give himself some courage to say this, "she is as admirable, honourable, and indeed _noble_ as anyone of noble blood, as, as I have found, are others of plebeian descent. You are wrong to distrust her because she does not know her ancestry."

Toxica basked in such great praise, coming from Octa, and to hear him defend her against his own family. His words sparked an immediate discussion, but it was quickly ended by Lord Publius:

"Silence! Silence, please. Aunt Galaxia, if my son vouches for her personality, that should be enough reason to trust Toxica for any of us. My son, these are some bold claims you put forth, and we shall have to discuss them at a later time. At the moment, we shall need to concentrate on defeating the attack before it reaches our ancestral home. Retreat is no option; we all know the mansion was not constructed for defensive purposes and that we have always responded to attacks by using these grasslands to ambush. While an attempt to ambush shall fail due to the enemy being alerted to our plans, we shall still have to make our stand here. Brittanicus, take one-third of our force and make a semi-circular movement around the enemy; we shall still endeavour to flank them."

"My lord," said Aunt Galaxia, bitterly, "with all due respect: aside from Team Plasma's previous attack, two months ago, neither Brittanicus nor yourself have ever had to defend our ancestral home; last time it was attacked was in the days when my esteemed mother led our house, shortly after you hatched. I believe I would make a better leader to either of our forces than you or Brittanicus."

"I believe Brittanicus shall make a better leader of the flanking force and I shall lead our main force myself; however, your advice shall indeed be welcome and I shall endeavour to keep you by my side, aunt."

Their discussion continued, but Toxica didn't listen any more and instead thanked Octa: "Octa, cheers for helpin' me out. Those things you said were very nice."

Octa smiled and was about to say something when Brittanicus approached them: "Octa, Toxica, follow me. We're going to attack the enemy's flank."

–

Toxica ran along with the twelve Servines and Serperiors. They had to move fast so the grunts and pokémon employed as scouts would only alert the enemy shortly before their flanking manoeuvre hit them in the back. The fact that she was having a hard time keeping up with the snakes, though her legs were longer than the Servines' and the Serperiors had no legs at all, annoyed her to no end. But not as much as the entire Equinox family's attitude. Galaxia might be the worst of all, but all of them really harboured the same sentiments. _I'll show them who has 'lesser' blood here... Bunch of gits, at least Octa and Livia stood up for me. I'll show them they were right about me! I hope they were right about me..._

Sounds of the battle began as the main force collided with Plasma, making enormous flames that were visible even above the high grass. It was a good thing May had been very rainy so the grasses were wet, or they could easily have a massive fire on their hands. Brittanicus gestured to charge and ran forward to the enemy, Leaf Blade drawn.

Team Plasma had been warned about the flank by their scouts, so the grunts at the rear of their force were not entirely unprepared, yet it still was very effective. Toxica enveloped herself in a whirlwind of sharp petals as she used a dance-like combat style, hitting her opponents with several attacks while (she hoped) elegantly dodging their attacks. She easily ploughed through the enemy force, knocking pokémon and humans alike out with the powerful Petal Dance as her allies did the same with Leaf Blade and Energy Ball to her sides.

A gust of wind blew the tall grass aside as a Charizard and a Crobat ascended into the air with a human each on their backs. A balding old man whose greying blond hair ineffectively covered his immense bald spot in a poor comb-over was on the Charizard's back. He wore long red robes matching his Charizard's scales. Riding the Crobat was another old man with greying brown hair and a goatee wearing purple robes, who Toxica recognised as Sage Zinzolin. At that moment, the battle immediately stopped, both sides recognising this was time to listen, not to fight.

"Pokémon of Crimshon Breedersh," shouted the other old man from his Charizard's back in a Dutch accent. "We are Sagesh Rood and Zinzolin of Team Plashma! Our wor ishent wit you, but wit de youmansh who have cruwelly and shelfishly ushed you for generations, exploiting you for dair purshunnal profit. We are here to liberate you, not to fight you. Sho shtand ashide and join ush in our shwift and terrible vengeanshe upon your shelf-proclaimed mashtersh, broddersh and shishtersh!"

The voice of Lord Publius Cornelius, soaked with righteous indignation, sounded from the tall grass. "None who would kill innocents, who would wage war upon the valued bonds between human and pokémon, nay, on reason itself, who have destroyed ancient and valuable architecture and art, who have murdered members of the house of Quintillus, and who now seek to impose their will upon us and assault our ancestral home and our faithful human friends shall be considered brother or sister of the house of Equinox! Return now, you despicable fiends; return to whatever abyss you emerged from, and leave the noble house of Equinox, as well as all of Unova, in peace, or you shall regret the day you ever slighted us! We shall resist you, wherever you go, and none of you villains shall escape to tell others the foolishness of slighting the house of Equinox, nay, civilisation itself!"

The entire house of Equinox cheered after his speech, and Toxica cheered with them.

"Dat's a shame," said Rood from the back of his Charizard. "I would have tought pokémon like you would be wiser dan to chooshe de pat of violenshe. Pleashe reconshider; I don't want to have to end your houshe'sh long hishtory today. Won't you take de pat of peace inshtead?"

"Never!" spoke Lord Publius. "The house of Equinox shall never betray its friends and allies to side with barbaric aggressors! Type advantage or no type advantage, the house of Equinox shall stand firm for centuries after your Team Plasma has crumbled to dust, no more than a footnote in the history books."

"I see," said Zinzolin from the back of his Crobat. "You 'ave chosen to side with our enemies, then. Then you are an enemy of Team Plasma as well, and we shall unfortunately 'ave to kill you. We do this with regret."

"The house of Equinox shall never fall! Attack! Attack for Equinox and honour!"

At that moment the battle recommenced. Flames and poison and energy burst through the battlefield. Dozens of Leaf Blades were used expertly. Toxica fought her enemies with Petal Dance; the battle was going great until until a massive blast of flames engulfed a cousin of Octa's, who was fighting on Toxica's left. Toxica screeched in fear as the wave of heat hit her from that side. Charizard swooped over them, spitting an intense inferno downwards that incinerated another Serperior. Toxica's swift reaction allowed her to escape with just some slight scorches, but some cries of pain told her not everyone had been so lucky. She ducked under a blast of poison a Drapion shot at her and fought a Krokorok that was surprisingly fast. The tall grass the battlefield was covered with was rapidly withering away between the flames and the poison the enemy used, allowing everyone more overview of the battle. Toxica saw Lord Publius now, battling Rood's Chandelure and Zinzolin's Weezing at the same time, but she couldn't see Octa. Fear that he had been killed gripped her.

A blaze of fire withered a thick clump of grass to her side, and revealed Rood's Heatmor. She made eye-contact with the fiery anteater for a moment and jumped to the side immediately, avoiding the Flamethrower it immediately unleashed upon her. She quivered in terror as she felt its heat and imagined the agony if it would hit her. Her legs felt like jelly and she desperately wanted to flee from the mighty fire-type. But something in her resisted and decided she was going to stand her ground. She launched a thick cloud of toxic pollen from her flower.

Heatmor coughed and sneezed as it inhaled the pollen, unleashing flames from its snout, and Toxica followed up by launching a flood of acidic nectar from her flower, covering her opponent in the toxic, painful goo. She laughed at how easy this was going as she enveloped herself in a whirlwind of sharp leaves and began a dance-like physical combat style.

But she had underestimated her enemy: as she hit it with the Petal Dance, its claws burst in flame and it gave her a phenomenal, scorching punch that sent her flaming and screaming through the air, fortunately landing on her burning side so the flames were extinguished. She whimpered in pain from the bone-breaking impact and the flames, but tried to get up as soon as she could to prevent her enemy from incinerating her. But it took her so long she expected to be incinerated already. Instead, she heard sounds of fighting very close by. Looking up, she saw Aurora fighting Heatmor, dodging flames and attacking with unbelievable elegance and grace, stabbing the opponent with a blue Leaf Blade.

Toxica managed to stand up just as Heatmor managed to hit Aurora, punching her away with a Fire Punch. Toxica shot more Acid at her opponent as she dodged flames, but even with the toxic powder poisoning her enemy, it just wasn't that powerful an attack. She was in big trouble against a more powerful enemy that threatened to incinerate her.

Octa, with several burns and some very oddly-coloured, painful wounds, ran at her enemy, rolled over the ground to dodge under the wave of flame the Heatmor sent his way, jumped up and stabbed his opponent with his Leaf Blade. Heatmor's fiery claw reached to punch Octa, but at that moment the warm, high June-Sun broke through the cover of clouds. Toxica felt great energy as the Sun shone on her chlorophyl-containing flower and skin. She used that energy by focussing it all into a single point, her flower's centre, aimed it at the Heatmor, and fired a powerful SolarBeam directly into its face. It roared in pain as it was at the same time blinded by the intense light and burnt by its energy.

Toxica took the sunlight in for another Solar Beam as Octa stabbed their blinded enemy several times. With another great beam of intense light, their enemy fell down to the ground, defeated.

Octa, burnt and wounded, turned to her with admiration and walked at her. "I have made my choice. I hope you can forgive me," he said, infuriating Toxica for a moment, "for not choosing for you earlier. I am quite willing to endure my family's wrath for you."

He embraced her and their lips found each other amidst the fires and sounds of battle. Toxica was overwhelmed with love as she firmly snogged with Octa. While not their first kiss, this fifth kiss felt far more important than their first kiss as there was no mistaking it's meaning.

–

The battle was not going well. Though they outflanked the enemy and had defeated quite a lot of them, even more of Octa's relatives had fallen. The type advantage the Sages' pokémon had over almost all of them was just very hard to overcome. The fire easily burnt plants and the poison withered them. As Toxica and Octa fought together, the fact that they were losing became increasingly clear. As they beat a Wormadam together, Toxica began feeling desperate. "Octa, we're losing the battle! We should retreat!"

"That is impossible," replied Octa. "This is our best opportunity to stop them, for my ancestral home is quite a poor defensive position, nor should we seek to engage the enemy there, for even victory would come at great cost of heirlooms there. However, I do agree we should endeavour to find a better manner of defeating them than through sheer military force. I do wish Boreas had accompanied me..."

Toxica felt oddly jealous, considering she had just kissed Octa, and said: "We'll just have to do it without him. I guess we should attack the Sages?"

They had to dodge a spray of toxic slime from Zinzolin's Muk. "A good suggestion, but I fail to see how we could do so. The Charizard and Crobat they are flying upon are both highly resistant to both Energy Ball and SolarBeam. There is little opportunity to hit the humans on their backs. Then again... I think I do have an idea. You could poison them."

"Not at this range, I couldn't. There's no way I could hit them with-" she used Petal Dance on an enemy Raticate, "-any poison attacks from so far away while they fly."

"No, you couldn't; but I could throw you using my vines. When nearby, you could unleash your strongest poisons, then I could catch you again."

Toxica looked at him like he was insane, then remembered the carnage around them. "It's worth a shot. Throw me at Zinzolin; I don't fancy that Charizard's flames."

"I'm afraid it would be more effective to throw you at Rood; as a poison-master, Zinzolin would likely be carrying antidotes for many toxins."

"Okay, I guess. Then I'll have to attack Rood..."

Octa grabbed her in his vines, but she gave him a quick kiss before he threw her. "For good luck."

As Rood flew over, Toxica was launched high into the air by Octa, tumbling above the battle in the scorched, withered battlefield amidst the sea of tall grass. She quickly charged up a powerful dose of her nastiest poisons as she reached the top of her parabolic flight. Rood and his Charizard saw her before she reached them, but it was already too late: she gave him a face full of poisonous powders, slimes, and acids. But as she fell past the Charizard, she hit its wing and was knocked away from her trajectory. She was now falling sideways; Octa was nowhere near the place she'd land to catch her. She yelped in fear as she realised she was falling upside-down and would probably break her neck even with her flower cushioning the impact.

Just as she was about to hit the ground, Zinzolin's Skuntank, which was fighting Brittanicus, jumped aside to dodge its enemy's attack, jumping right under Toxica whose fall was cushioned by the soft, furry body. The Skuntank roared loudly in pain as she landed on it, threw her off to the ground, and opened its mouth to show its impressive set of teeth. Toxica tried to struggle away under it as it was about to bite her throat in anger, but it was too heavy and its claws had grabbed her flower firmly.

With a phenomenal lunge, Brittanicus' Leaf Blade stabbed right through the Skuntank's throat, now that it was preoccupied with Toxica, entering on the left and exiting on the right side. It jumped at Brittanicus in a pained reflex, and Toxica felt a cutting pain as its claws, which still held on to her flower, tore two of the large petals from her head. Blood and molasses leaked down her face as the Skuntank collapsed.

–

The battle was a victory, albeit a costly one. When Toxica had poisoned Rood, he had had no choice but to retreat, his face covered in dreadfully colourful wounds and ulcers. While Zinzolin had tried to keep himself and the grunts fighting, the death of one of his own pokémon at the hands of Brittanicus and the retreat of Rood had severely undermined the morale of the grunts, who had quickly begun fleeing the battle. Seeing his remaining pokémon surrounded and outnumbered, Zinzolin had wisely returned them to their pokéballs and fled to wherever it was Team Plasma hid on his Crobat.

But Octa had lost many a relative today. Uncle Vergillius, first cousins Tertia and Marcus Ulpius, his second cousin once removed, Gitaxias, his fourth cousin Marcia, and others he knew less well were all other names he'd have to miss. Their loss was a bitter pill to swallow to the entire family, but in the end the famed valour of the house of Equinox had triumphed. Every single one of them had proved their descendance from the great Equinox today. Including Toxica.

Yet Octa felt guilty for what he was about to tell his father. Toxica had conducted herself very admirably in battle; surely that would help convince him. A voice of doubt in his mind told him he could still back out, not tell his family, and tell Toxica he chose for Aurora anyway. But not only did he refuse to do so cowardly a deed, but he also recognised that was an impossibility; they had kissed in the middle of the battle, after all, probably with several relatives watching, so it was only a matter of time before all of them knew. Presumably the only reason the news hadn't spread yet was that the family had been too busy returning the remains of their fallen to the mansion so they could be given the farewell they deserved.

He took a deep breath. "Father, I have decided not to marry Aurora Invicta."

His father looked up to meet his gaze. "It highly saddens me to hear that, my son. What are your objections to her? Is she not a most honourable lady and a truly great potential wife?"

"Yes, she is all that and more, father. But I have decided to forego marrying her, for she is not the one I love. For the one I love is Toxica."

His father glowered at his son. "You know this is an impossibility. If you do not wish to marry Aurora, another mate can be found for you, but Toxica is neither a Snivy nor of noble blood."

"That does not matter, father. What matters is that I truly love her. You have undoubtedly observed her in battle today; did she not display at least as much honour and valour as any of us? I am certain our descendants shan't be ashamed to have her as their ancestor any less than they would be ashamed to have any other member of the house of Equinox as their ancestor."

"They would be Oddishes, my son! Bastard children with a broken ancestry and befouled blood! Is a son of mine really as selfish as to take the great gift of noble ancestry away from his descendants?"

"No, father, 'tis not selfishness. Toxica is as admirable a person as any descendant of the great Equinox."

"Perhaps she is, but that does not change the fact that her ancestry is obscure and low. That I would see the day a son of the house of Equinox would waste his great potential by mingling with something that has crawled out of the gutter..."

"'Tis neither her ancestors nor mine who are important here, father! She and I are the only ones that matter. You sound like great-aunt Galaxia now; small-minded and stuck in the past!"

"You dare take the name of a member of your house as an insult? Your behaviour is unacceptable!"

"I do not take it as an insult, I merely point out you are exhibiting similar flawed reasoning. Great-aunt Galaxia believes we should not mingle with those of lower blood, much like our ancestors of old did, yet you and I both know this is archaic and wrong; those without noble blood in their veins are just as capable of achieving greatness, they merely aren't born with it. That is what you thought me. Did Toxica not achieve greatness today worthy of a descendant of Equinox? I postulate we would not have achieved victory without her; most of us would be dead now, rather than just a few, and our ancestral home would lie in ruins, our human friends slaughtered. It was this same lowly-bred lady who brought us victory whom I also wish to marry. Yes, she does not know her ancestry and is likely of lower blood, but was the same not true of the great Equinox? We don't even know what his parents' names were."

This gave his father pause. "You are right. We do owe our victory to her. But please, I implore you to think about this choice; even if she may have honour worthy of the house of Equinox, do you really want your descendants to be born as Oddishes?"

"Yes, I do. I see no harm in that."

Lord Publius sighed. "I do not agree with your choice, my son. Yet, you are correct that Toxica had exhibited valour worthy of you. If you really want to, I shall endeavour to convince the family it should be allowed as I discuss it with them. But at least try to reconsider..."

Octa hugged him. "Thank you so much, father..."

–

"Cruel oppressor!"

"How can you do this to them?"

"Liberate your pokémon, don't you see it's evil to keep them?"

"Team Plasma will get you, trainer!"

"Selfish bastard!"

These were just some of the insults Black had had thrown at him since they had arrived in Castelia. When they had finally arrived in Nacrene, Lenora had told them she believed the Light Stone had to be in the Relic Castle, which was in the route 4 desert between Castelia and Nimbasa. So they had taken the train to Castelia immediately, only to find the city's people were firmly in Team Plasma's grip. Yet they couldn't set out immediately and leave the unwelcoming city, as Octa had called to say he and Toxica were on their way after a victorious battle.

Boreas remembered the city as big and busy, but basically fun with many people and pokémon from when they were there last year. The Castelia of eleven months later was barely recognisable. The buildings were all the same, but the pokémon were almost all gone. You could find more cheer in a graveyard; the people were grim and sad, and hostile towards Black. Big symbols of Team Plasma had been painted on buildings, and several buildings were closed off, ransacked and their inhabitants disappeared or murdered. The entire city was baking in the heat of early summer, which felt even hotter to Boreas than it would do by itself as he had just spent a long time in the mountains, where it was much cooler.

Black was looking for supplies to make the trek to the Relic Castle, but when he got to a store, the guard at the entrance told him they were closed, even though it was mid-afternoon and there were clearly customers inside. Black was about to make a scene when he was suddenly pulled away by a human. But Boreas, nor his other pokémon, defended him as they saw it was White. She hadn't changed much in the half year since they'd last seen her.

"Hey, what are you- Oh, it's you, White!" Black said as White dragged him away by his arm. "Great to see you again, but what are you doing? I need stuff from that store and the guy at the entrance wouldn't let me in."

"Follow me," said White curtly. "Don't struggle, just come with me quickly."

"Wh-where are you taking me?"

"To my apartment."

Black arched an eyebrow and followed her a lot more willingly. "Oh?"

"Get your mind out of the gutter, or I'll leave you out here to be lynched! I'm just protecting you from your own stupidity!"

"I-I don't understand..." stammered Black.

"Just shut up and follow me quickly, I'll explain when we get to my apartment."

Black and his pokémon followed White through Castelia. At one point, Boreas heard a screech and a crash and a groan of pain, looked around in shock, but only saw Zeph and Selene lying on the ground.

"You flew right into me, you ftupid bird!" Zeph snarled angrily.

"S-sorry," Selene stammered, standing up again, "I was trying to land on your shoulder."

"You crashed right into it! And besides, I don't like people touching me, and that includes sitting on my shoulder!"

"I really thought I was still above you..."

"Well, you thought wrong. Please don't try to sit on my shoulder again."

"Are you blind as well as crazy?" asked Lucius. "Just get on _my _shoulder instead if you can do it without crashing into me too, you crazy bird."

Boreas followed Black and White as they went to her apartment on the fifth floor of a tall building. It was a small, messy apartment, and all White's pokémon were in there. Boreas smiled immediately as he saw Febby. She had grown more beautiful since last time he had seen her, a very handsome Umbreon, yet she was rather plain compared to Aqua, Boreas thought. He felt a momentary flicker of nervousness, which he dismissed right away. "Hey, Febby, long time no see!"

Febby smiled shyly. "Oh, Boreas, I didn't expect to see you."

Then Esper the Espeon greeted him too: "Hey, dude. Good to see you again, it's been a while."

Boreas looked at Esper and forced a smile, though he thought the guy was an annoying idiot with a stupid name and a stupid personality. "Yeah, it has. What was your name again?"

"Esper," he said with a giggle as he nuzzled Febby's side, making Boreas feel very annoyed.

"Right, Edwin, now I remember you," Boreas said coldly.

Esper was so caught up in nuzzling Febby he didn't notice Boreas intentionally using the wrong name.

"Excuse the mess," said White to Black. "Anyway, what were you thinking, going over street with your pokémon in plain view? Don't you know there's a war going on?"

"Well, yeah, but I didn't figure it would be any problem..."

"No problem? Team Plasma has publicly announced they're going to kill everyone with pokémon, and made true on that promise quite a few times, and you didn't think it was a problem? And that's after they spent a whole year telling everyone how bad it is to keep pokémon. You're lucky I found you."

"But... The war didn't seem nearly this bad in Icirrus, I mean, there were still trainers, and people didn't insult or threaten you for having pokémon..."

"Icirrus is small and remote; you're in Castelia now. This city has been Team Plasma's main target, and they've done a damn good job at it. For a while, I really considered liberating my pokémon too, but I just couldn't... They haven't been outside since the war started, it's just too dangerous..."

"I'm sorry to hear that, I didn't realise things were so bad... But hey, I've got an idea: why don't you come with me to the Relic Castle? I'm going there to find a legendary pokémon to use against Team Plasma, and I could use both the company and the help a lot."

–

AUTHOR'S NOTES: I've been describing Unova a bit more expansively than the games show it. But I was wondering how big the difference is, so I decided to draw a map based on my descriptions: fc02 dot deviantart dot net/fs71/f/2012/041/e/8/map_of_unova_by_apenpaap-d4p918u dot png . Don't take it too literally, it's mostly done from memory, the scale is somewhat randomly picked, and details about the places they haven't been to yet will likely change when they go there.

FEEDBACK: Guardian54: Q: you write pretty fast don't you?

A: Well, I like writing, so I tend to do it fast. Sometimes it doesn't go fast and it takes longer.

Q: I hope Toxica ends up heartbroken.

A: Too bad.

Q: I mean, I like her and all, but a vileplume? Really? I would have though a Roserade was a better choice.

A: I like Vileplume better.

Q: Also, in Pokemon Black where you get Reshiram on your side you can't get Oddish... Although in White you can get Oddish and Budew, Roserade is a better choice if you want to have a high Sp Atk and Def (It also looks nicer). For obvious reasons it's too late to change things, but please keep that in mind for your next fic.

A: No, I won't.

Q: I know it's racism

A: Specieism, actually.

Q: WHY DIDN'T YOU MAKE HER A BELLOSOM?

A: Because I like Vileplume better, because Bellossom looks silly while Vileplume wears a huge flower hat, because Vileplume is based on a rafflesia, the coolest flower in the world (it's a metre across and smells like rotting meat, how can you not love a flower like that?), and because Bellossom quite obviously was designed as a separate pokémon unrelated to Oddish, but got randomly made into a Gloom evo to give Sun stones more use and make more branched evolutions.

UNKNOWN: Q: Finally, ze Light Stone! Vait just one moment... How vill Reshiram fit in ze party?

A: Those who have played the game might already have a clue ;).

The Bulbafinatic: Q: First off: 0-0

A: You can't castle on your first move; your knight and bishop are still in the way at that point.

Q: Why, Octa? Just... why?

A: Well, rational though he usually is, he too lets himself be ruled by emotions sometimes.

Q: Hmm... it looks Toxica and Octa have some issues to fix. Octa just got stuck in the worst situation possible in terms of love.

A: Nah, there are much, much worse situations in terms of love. Octa's situation is probably in the bottom half as far as situations go, but they can always be much worse. For example, nobody suffers from Ebola. That's one thing that can make any situation worse.

Q: He loves Toxica, but then they hit a bump in the road. As he sort of lost feelings for her, he grew towards someone else. Then he finds out the truth: he still loves Toxica!

A: He never really lost his feelings for Toxica, it was more like he was trying to suppress them and put them aside. Which didn't really work for him very well in the end.

Q: What a terrible vicious circle to be in the middle of!

A: I think you mean lovers' triangle; a vicious circle is a bad situation of which the effects are the cause of making that situation extra bad, creating a circle of cause and effect that results in things getting worse and worse.

RuningWitSizorz: Q: ^FT^ I think I might have a new fav chapter...

A: You do? Well, that is a bit of a surprise, I was not quite happy with the previous chapter myself.

Q: I still hate Octa but he's not in the top three anymore. :3 I'm so antsy for the next chapter!

A: I hope he'll yet manage to redeem himself, and I also hope this chapter lived up to your expectations.

Q: Oh and thhat was a VERY funny joke Zeph told! XD

A: Heh, well, Boreas didn't really appreciate him calling his girlfriend that.

Glaceon34: Q: 3.39 : a servine can play chess using vine whip, that I can get, but Glaceon and Vaporeon both lack of usable fingers, and they don't have physics power so how can they move pieces without mess with the others? Did they use their mouth?

A: They may lack opposable thumbs, but that doesn't make it impossible for them to grab things. Try grabbing things without using your thumb; it's harder but still quite easy really. Of course, their fingers aren't as long as ours which would further make grabbing harder, but then it isn't as if chess is a game requiring extreme dexterity.

Q: 3.46 : ARG! what did she just say? Did she want a death sentence. I can't believe this! and I thought You are smart Aqua! Didn't she hear the news? and I thought she had her eyes open after what happened with Deigo, and now I have to worry for your well-being AGAIN! But why can't I hate you!

A: She certainly realises how evil Diego is, but that doesn't suddenly make her want to side with humans, which she still considers evil. Just because there's evil people on her side (remember, she already knew the Sages weren't exactly pleasant either) doesn't mean she shouldn't side with that side.

Q: 3.51 : Boreas win! IS that a sign!

A: Could be. Or it's just a game.

Q: and what games are they talking about?

A: Slapjack, double exposure blackjack, ninety-nine, screw-your-neighbour, and jabberwocky.

Q: 4.11 : Toxica's outbrust will be a perfect example for mine reaction if you let Boreas or Aqua die.

A: Oh, good.

Q: 4.15 :*silent* what? (take note for yourself, kiss the girl is the best way for you to stop her rampaging)

A: Well, it worked. Though he could've been slapped/poisonpowdered for it just as easily.

Q: 4.24 : should I laugh? green red

A: If you like. It wasn't really intended as a joke, more like an amusing side-effect of the way Selene expresses herself.

Q: 4.26 : that cutie Vaporeon who's been swallowing my nephews and nieces! huh, he 's using present perfect continuos,can it be used to express something not true in the present because I don't think Aqua is pregnant,or is she?oh nevermind that 's a joke.

A: Yeah, it was just a joke. Zeph doesn't know about what exactly Boreas and Aqua did together (Boreas didn't give him any details), he was just making an immature joke. And Aqua is indeed not pregnant; let me quote myself on the answer to the question of how pokémon would go about preventing cubs: "The answer to that is, of course: "I don't know, and if I asked them the answer they'd give me would probably be: "Mind your own business, you nosy bastard."" So, in short, I don't know and don't really want to pay it too much attention; but they do have some way of preventing them. Considering the vulnerability of gametes to temperatures above or below body temperature (if you're male, working with a laptop actually in your lap already causes a significant drop in fertility due to the increased temperature down there), maybe using an ice-attack or Scald (for which they heat up and cool down their bodies) actually leaves them temporarily infertile for a few days. That is my best guess, but substitute any other explanation you like."

Q: 4.38 :i had no ideal why Black call OCta but can't understand a singer world from him.

A: He mainly just wanted to tell Octa to join him, and he also believes he's better at understanding his pokémon than he really is.

Q:nah if the dog eat your head can write a better story than you then it worth a try! my review is 183th at this rate it is very likely that your next chapter will get through the 200th milestone and Ididn't plan to miss it this time!

A: Heh, you already got the 50th and 150th. Anyway, it's unlikely to get to 200 with this chapter, unless I suddenly get a huge influx of readers or someone starts spamming (Don't). I only got 6 reviews on the previous chapter, so at this rate it'll take three more chapters (6 seems very little after the previous chapters got 10, but I remind myself I would've been ecstatic about 6 reviews half a year ago) before the 200th.

Ice Dorago: Q: This story is quite amazing. I found the fic from the Fic of the Month on Bulbagarden's forums, and throughout the week have been reading it when I have had time, and finished it last night.

A: Well, first off, thanks for reading it.

Q: Honestly, the very fact that this fic has the amount of romantic plot that it does, yet I'm still reading it means you've done something right, since generally too much romance can turn me away, but I actually enjoy the romantic side here.

A: Thanks, that is great to hear. Interestingly, it's not the first time I've heard that either. I guess I must be doing _something_ right with the romance that people who don't normally enjoy it enjoy it/find it bearable.

Q: Like seemingly everybody else, Capella's death was quite sad, though I think it might have been necessary in order to open up some conflicts in the story.

A: Yeah, that is one of the reasons she died.

Q: I really like most of the characters. Yes, this includes Lucius. While some of them have had less development than others, they're a pretty enjoyable cast.

A: Great, especially about Lucius. It's always nice to have someone who appreciates him.

Q: I like the Sages in this story because they actually do something. Honestly, if you think about it, you'd probably be dead very early on in Black/White since the Sages really should be incredibly strong Pokémon masters that would easily defeat you using the game's battle mechanics.

A: Yeah, the Sages are appalingly useless in the games. There's no point at all to six of them being there. But in my story they provide a nice opportunity to make Team Plasma a threat without having to try and make the grunts scary or powerful (which seems pretty much impossible, considering how much of a joke they are in the games).

Q: I'm actually surprised I dislike Diego, since I generally enjoy characters like him, but I don't this time for some reason.

A: He has some rough edges I am rather displeased with having written that make it somewhat harder to love to hate him than it should be.


	54. Ashes and Dust

Chapter Fifty-Four: Ashes and Dust

Toxica and Octa were really beginning to annoy Boreas. When they had returned from Octa's family with the news that they were now together, Boreas had been very happy, of course. Octa had managed to look past his family's traditions, and even managed to convince a few of his relatives, though not remotely all of them, that things should be changed. In short, Boreas had been delighted to hear his friends were now more than friends for each other.

But it was getting ridiculous; they only had eyes for each other. Octa would spend almost all his time with Toxica. He would talk to her, always walk with her, hold her hand, and occasionally they kissed. Boreas had tried just talking along with them, of course, but when they talked it was quite clear the conversation was mainly between the two of them and Boreas was more or less a bystander. It made him feel uncomfortable, especially when they would kiss and he didn't know where to look or what to do. So he had barely spoken with Octa in the past few days, and that, coupled with the desert heat and the blazing Sun, was really annoying him. He thought it was very inconsiderate of his friend to do this to him. Sure, Boreas had also spent almost all his time with Aqua whenever he could, but that was different.

Last time they had crossed the desert, Boreas had been inside his pokéball for most of the journey. But he had been just a young, barely evolved Glaceon then. He had a lot more experience and was a lot stronger this time, so he preferred walking to being inside his pokéball for the whole journey. While it wasn't anywhere near comfortable, making a continuous Icy Wind blow around him at least made the desert bearable. In fact, the cold zone he created around him was welcomed happily by everyone else except for Lucius and White's Darmanitan, who walked outside it, gladly taking in the desert heat. Though Selene usually either flew or sat on Lucius' shoulder, she mostly sat on either Boreas' or Black's shoulders during their journey through the desert, preferring to stay in the colder zone around Boreas.

In all, Boreas had quite a troupe around him. There were Black and White, Toxica and Octa, Febby and Esper (all four of whom seemed to have their lips glued to their respective partners at times, highly annoying Boreas. He wished they'd keep the kissing in private, it frustrated him to no end to see them smooch all the time. Obviously, it was different when he and Aqua did that), Selene, Zeph, and White's other pokémon: Braviary, Mandibuzz, and Simipour.

He watched Esper and Febby laugh and play around. "I don't know what she sees in that idiot," he said to Zeph.

"Mhuh?" said Zeph indistinctly. "Oh. Him. Yeah, it's her loss, brother. But then, if she'd," he yawned lengthily. "if fhe'd returned your love, you wouldn't be with your foxy Vaporeon now."

"Yeah, you're right there," grinned Boreas. "How did you know I used to be in love with Febby anyway? I don't think I ever told you that."

Zeph grinned. "It's not hard to guess."

Boreas chuckled. "I'll try to hide it better, then. I'm not actually in love with her any more, certainly not since I've met Aqua. Speaking of hiding things, you do quite a good job of looking awake. It wasn't until you opened your mouth that I noticed how tired you are. Are you not sleeping well?"

Zeph yawned. "Sand fleas. They've been keeping me up all night for days..."

Boreas shrugged. "I guess I got lucky with my sleeping spots; they haven't bothered me yet."

"Lucky you," Zeph yawned. "They're devouring me every night. I wonder what they eat when they can't get Flareon?"

"Well, if they keep bothering you just wake me and I'll swap places with you."

"Nah, that won't work. I tried lying in different spots when they bothered me too much, but I think they just follow me. Must be this large, furry collar. If I'd just been a Jolteon, I bet they wouldn't bother me so much..."

–

"I just wish I could see your pretty face, my love," said Boreas into the X-transceiver. Unfortunately, he could only use the audio because if he used the video option, the desert behind him would be obvious. While he knew Aqua could be trusted not to relay that information to Plasma, even if she did intend on rejoining them, there was always the possibility that Team Plasma would intercept the call. He couldn't even tell her about the stifling desert heat or how tiring it was to walk through sand for a whole day. "Seeing you again would really break the monotony. Octa is really spending far too much time with Toxica now. And Zeph still hasn't been getting any sleep, so he's grumpy and he keeps dragging his feet really irritatingly. And I think Selene's mind is affected by circumstances here. Though it is hard to tell with her. But today she told me her Uncle Istvan one day showed up with an orange for a head, and so people asked him why he had an orange for a head. So he explained that he had met a Jirachi who told him it'd grant his three wishes. So for his first wish he said: "I would like more food than I could ever eat." And an enormous heap of food appeared. Then, for his second wish he said: "I want an intelligent, beautiful female to spend the rest of my life with." So the loveliest Honchkrow he had ever seen appeared. "What is your final wish?" asked Jirachi. So he said: "I'd like an orange for a head." Sometimes that crow really makes me wonder..."

He heard Aqua chuckle. "Well, things have been going a lot better on my end. I actually managed to move my toes today, can you believe that? I'm really recovering!"

"That's excellent, love! I'm so glad to hear that. I hope you'll recover completely soon."

"So do I," sniggered Aqua. "Because I've felt like Tantalus all this time with you by my side while I was too weak to move. Let me tell you what I'm going to do to you when I fully recover..."

As Aqua lowered her voice to a whisper, Boreas brought the X-transceiver close to his ear to hear what she said and whispered back so no-one else would hear him. After they had their whispered conversation for a while, making Boreas blush very deeply and really feel the desert's heat around him, he saw the Relic Castle ahead.

"Listen, my love, I have to hang up, because we'll soon get to where we need to be. I promise I'll return to you as soon as we find the stone."

"I can't wait. I'm getting my final operation tomorrow, you know. But I wish instead of the human doctor, you were here to play doctor."

"Heh, so do I, love. But I've really got to go now. I love you."

"I love you too."

Only the topmost tower of the castle was visible, as the rest was all buried deep underground, though Lenora had said much of the underground portions were decently excavated on the inside. She had really wanted to come with Black, but because her presence was needed in Nacrene now more than ever, she couldn't.

The tower didn't reach very high above the sand, but looked rather foreboding. There was something very sinister about it. A small hole stood as the tower's entrance, leading down to the dark insides of the castle.

"Well, we're here," said Black with an edge of fear in his voice. "It looks a bit uncanny... Let's get in there and find the stone quickly."

"Fine by me," said White as she and Black got torches from their backpacks. "That place gives me the shivers, but the White Stone's the best chance we have at stopping Team Plasma. I wonder if Reshiram will come out immediately when we find the stone?"

"When N summoned Zekrom, it took him a while to get it out of the stone. Quite a long while, actually. I think he talked to it with his thoughts or something, it was weird. I guess I'll have to do something similar when we find it."

Boreas followed the trainers into the murky tower. An intense darkness hung inside and it was incredibly dusty. The air was ancient and stale. With every step, clouds of dust would fly around, getting into everyone's noses and throats and making them cough and sneeze. But through the dust in his nose and the smell of the castle itself and the stinging, smoky smell of Zeph, he detected another smell, one which he thought he'd smelt before. In fact, he had been smelling it for a while, come to think of it, though it was hard to pin down since when. He tried to remember whose smell it was, but couldn't quite put his paw on it.

The Relic Castle's architecture was very angular. There were very few curves; it was all triangles, squares, and hexagons. Even the sculptures were angular. Boreas followed Black and White over the ancient stairs leading down, as Lenora had instructed them to look in the treasure chambers, which were probably a maze of various chambers deep down in the castle. As they walked down the stairs there was less sand and more of the stone the castle was originally built of.

They reached the bottom of the stairs and walked though magnificent halls and corridors, looking for stairs leading even deeper into the Earth. A deathly silence hung in the ancient ruins, the only sounds the steps of thirty feet of various sizes and the dragging of Zeph's four feet. "Lift. Up. Your. Feet," hissed Boreas to his brother.

"Huh?" asked Zeph sleepily. "Why?"

"Because the sound is even more grating in this deathly silence! Everything in the castle will hear that noise!"

"It's not louder than the noise of all your feet, and I'm tired, and there's no-one else here anyway. I don't feel like lifting up my feet, so don't bother me about it."

Boreas let out a frustrated sigh and tried not to focus on the sound of Zeph's feet in the silence. Instead he looked at the many halls in the castle as they descended. The castle truly felt incredibly ancient, as if he could feel the weight of millennia of time pressing down on him. It was awe-inspiring and scary.

–

After hours of searching, they had finally reached the treasure chambers, which were an extensive maze of tunnels and chambers deep down under the ground. While there was barely any of the gold and silver and gems you'd expect in treasure rooms, there were some gorgeous statues and frescos. The corridors between the rooms were mostly just plain, sandy stone corridors without much to differentiate them, but each room was a bit different. Some rooms had collapsed and were inaccessible, but most of them contained at least something. Many of the rooms were on a single level, though there were a few very high rooms with a steep staircase hugging the wall tightly so someone could descend or ascend a level.

At last, they entered a large room with five exits. There were gorgeous frescos displaying Reshiram all over the walls, and in the middle of the room the room rose up with stairs, culminating in a top with a short pillar on it. The top of the pillar wasn't visible from their current position, but it was obvious the Light Stone would be there.

"Well, Black," said White, "it must be on top of that. Looks like we're finally there! Go and get it!"

As Black climbed up the stairs, Boreas had a look around in the room. He had the nagging feeling something wasn't right. Trying to think of what was wrong about the room, he stared at the gorgeous frescos, which gleamed in the light of the torches... _Gleam? How can they gleam if everything has been covered by two millennia of dust?_

"Someone's been here before us!" he said. "They erased their tracks, but the floors and wall are still free of dust!"

At that moment, Black had reached the pillar. "I-it's not here!" he said in shock. "It's gone! Who took it?"

"We were about to ask-ah you the same theeng," said an Italian-accented voice. In one of the corridors stood the massively fat Giallo in his yellow robes, sweating heavily in the desert heat, as well as four grunts, who were all very dirty and dusty. Giallo's team of steel-types was there too: Klinklang, Magnezone, Scizor, Lucario, and Bastiodon.

"Giallo," said Black angrily as his and White's pokémon got in more defensive positions on the stairs. "How did you find out the stone was here and what did you do with it?"

"How we knew were the stone-ah was ees not eemportant. What concerns you ees: where ees eet now? Deed Alder come here-ah before us and where you only a deestraction? Answer me!"

Boreas laughed. "We haven't got a clue! Looks like you're out of luck!"

"No," said Giallo. "You are. Because-ah eet seems to me you really don't know. Because, eef Alder or someone else had taken it, we would've seen their tracks when we arrived here two days ago. Eet must've been taken by someone a long time ago, a grave-robber or an adventurer of some kind. Eet could be anywhere by now. But, if N ees correct, you are the only one who can-ah resurrect Reshiram from that stone. So, eef I just eliminate you here, the stone will do you no good, whoever has eet now. You, however, girl-ah, don't need to die. Surrender."

"Darmanitan," said White, "use Flamethrower to burn that stupid moustache off his face."

The entire cave lit up as a bolt of lighting jumped from Magnezone to Darmanitan, electrocuting it to prevent it from attacking Giallo.

"That was a very bad meestake. Eef you want to die beside him, I weel grant your weesh. Attack!"

The five enemy steel-types attacked, sinking fear into Boreas' heart. The steel-types he had battled and seen so far all told him it was a very powerful, dangerous type. The only way to hit them seemed to be to heat their armour up with fire attacks until they were baked on its conductive inside. Though, Boreas thought, using their own weight against them with a ground-attack might work too. But he had access to neither of those types of attacks, so when Scizor ran at him, its pincers ready to snap him in two, it was a problem to say the least.

He Ice Beamed the ground before its feet to make it slip and fall, but the dry, sandy stones hadn't seen water in centuries, so there was simply nothing to freeze. An Ice Beam to the Scizor didn't do anything either, even to its face. So Boreas did the only thing he could and ran for his life into a tunnel. The heavy, metallic footsteps of his enemy were close behind him as he ran, trying to think of some way to beat it. He entered a room full of stone statues and ran between them, throwing some of the statues in his pursuer's path to block it, but it snapped them in two easily with its steel pincers and continued mercilessly along its way.

Boreas saw the statues were no good at holding the Scizor back, and it was also a shame to see them destroyed, so he stopped throwing them and kept running, anxious to put more distance between him and Scizor, running into another tunnel. He saw one of the high rooms leading to a lower level ahead and had an idea. He stopped, turned around, and unleashed his most powerful Icy Wind yet to blow from him to the enemy. The stale, dusty air inside the tunnel didn't want to move. It was incredibly ancient air, which had been down here for centuries and hadn't blown freely through the sky since then, nor had it been inhaled by any living thing. It did not want to move, but with the desperate knowledge that he'd be cut in two like a sausage at dinner if he didn't get it to move, he used much energy to cool the air down and get wind going. The air felt much younger at once, like a seventy-year-old discovering his childhood hobby is still great fun. Now it was easy to make it blow harder and harder, though the tunnel, halting Scizor's progress as the gale turned into an icy storm. As the fierce wind could disperse nowhere in the tight tunnel, it was easy to make it very powerful.

Scizor was disturbingly close, but the icy storm finally halted it. While it was heavy and strong, helping it fight the wind, it was also very large and had wings that caught lots of air, making it almost impossible to progress to Boreas. The wind carried powerful blasts of sand and ice with it. Though Scizor didn't manage to take another step forward, much though it struggled against the wind, it wasn't blown back either. Boreas wasn't counting on that, though. While this would be a good moment to run away, he instead dug his claws into the ground and pressed himself as flat as possible, knowing what would happen next.

He stopped making the wind. Scizor took three steps forward and stood in front of Boreas, its pincer ready to grab him when it happened: the lower rooms behind Boreas, where he had blown so much air away from had very low pressure, while the statue room behind Scizor, where the wind blew towards, now had very high air-pressure. As Boreas expected, the result was rather violent: another howling stormwind of sand blasted back, except this time Scizor wasn't prepared for it and had its back towards it. The hurricane of wind blew the metal monstrosity over Boreas' head, through the tunnel, and with great speed into the staircase-room, where the crash as the heavy metallic creature hit the floor, its wings useless, was phenomenal. Meanwhile, Boreas, who was prepared for the wind, just got a face full of a painfully hard sand blast and was blown back a bit.

He didn't know whether the ten metres fall had killed Scizor, and didn't plan to find out either. He ran back through the statue-room and the tunnels to the room they had been ambushed in. Most of the fighters had dispersed through the tunnels and were no longer in the room. He saw Selene and Simipour fighting Bastiodon, but didn't have time to make out more than that in the darkness as the spiky collection of living gears that was the enemy Klinklang came at him.

It advanced rapidly on its big gear, making an infernal metallic noise as its gears ground towards Boreas faster and faster, trying to catch him and grind him down. He backed away and Ice Beamed the enemy, but it didn't even feel the beam of icy cold, even when Boreas aimed at the axes of the gears. The Klinklang went incredibly fast, he could not outrun it. He looked around quickly, but all his allies were caught up fighting the other enemies. Except for Zeph, who was not in any battle at the moment and looking at it all with sleepy shock.

"Zeph, you idiot!" Boreas yelled as the tunnel he backed into turned out to be a dead end, and was faced with the rapidly approaching gears. "Help me!"

Zeph looked at him in surprise, hesitated, and then rushed for Boreas. As the Klinklang reached him, it trapped him between its grinding gears, but kept spinning, sending a terrible pain through him. But he was fortunate: before the gears could keep spinning and grind his spine to paste, Zeph managed to stop them with his phenomenal strength.

"Stay away from him!" ordered Zeph as he spit a wave of flame at the Klinklang. The torrent of intense fire blazed over Klinklang, so it was fortunate for Boreas he was behind it so its body shielded him from Zeph's flames. He felt a wave of heat from the fire, yet it didn't feel as hot as he expected, nor did the flames enlighten the dark tunnel as much as he thought they would. Fortunately it seemed enough to convince Klinklang to leave him, for it fled. Zeph spit one more flame after it before it turned the corner.

"Thanks, Zeph," said Boreas gratefully. "That was just in the nick of time."

"That's two you owe me," grinned Zeph. "Try to stay safe, okay? I'm going back to fight them."

"Stay safe? What do you mean? I'm not going to cower while my friends fight for their lives!"

"These are highly-trained steel-types. Fire is pretty much the only way to hurt them. You can't freeze them, you can't bite them, pretty much nothing works against them. What are you going to do against them?"

"I dunno, I expect I'll come up with something. I usually do."

"Do it away from me, then, because I intend to use Fire Blast and Lava Plume and don't want to accidentally catch you in them." And he ran back.

Boreas muttered in annoyance, but realised Zeph was right in that there was little he could do against the enemy. While their metal armours would of course conduct cold just as well as heat, he also realised there was a big difference between having a baking hot metal plate pressed against you or a freezing cold one; one hurt and burned you, while the other was just really unpleasant. Cold just seemed to work better if you could really get it deep into your opponent, not with simple touch. He had to think of some way to get the cold through that armour effectively if he wanted to be useful in this fight.

Fortunately, he thought of a way that might just work. Using the pulses of cold he used for his Frost Concussion offensively instead of defensively might be enough to get the cold all the way through the steel armour. He rushed after Zeph, and soon came into the chamber where Zeph, Selene, Octa and Simipour where still fighting enemies while several others lay on the ground defeated. Zeph was spitting impressive flames at Klinklang, barely missing it, though the deep darkness of the ancient tunnels somehow seemed to absorb the light of the flames. With a tremendous beam of energy to its face, Boreas saw Lucario defeat Simipour. He ran at Lucario, planning to use his plan of attack against it, but it saw him coming, extended a front paw, and an invisible wave of psychic energy, like a giant's hand slapping his face hit his face, knocking it back with such force that Boreas made a half-flip and landed on his back.

"No!" he heard Zeph yell. "Don't you dare attack him! Attack me instead!"

Boreas crawled back to his feet and saw the Lucario was indeed firing its aura attacks at Zeph, who was also in battle with Bastiodon, fortunately missing him. "Shut up, Zeph, I can take care of myself!"

Boreas jumped at Lucario and managed to grab its stomach with his front paws. He immediately unleashed pulses of cold, prompting a howl of pain as his enemy folded over. A tremendous kick knocked Boreas off his enemy, but it was clearly hurt by the attack.

"If you kill him," snarled Zeph threateningly at the Lucario, "you'll have me to answer to!"

Boreas pounced his opponent again, but its large legs left it very agile despite its metallic exterior, and it easily dodged him. As Boreas came down next to it, he realised he had made a terrible blunder as he was now for a moment incredibly vulnerable, next to his opponent with his back more or less exposed; a single powerful kick from the fighting type could probably break his neck now. As he tried desperately to recover he just waited for the horrible pain he expected to begin, but to his surprise the Lucario missed its opportunity to strike. He turned on it instead, but it managed to dodge him again. Then he made a feint to the left as he actually jumped to the right, and managed to catch Lucario. Before it had a chance to throw him off, he had pumped another pulse of cold through it, this time through its upper chest. Then, as his opponent writhed in pain, he managed to grab its head and sent a pulse of cold through it. It collapsed to the ground.

Boreas laughed. "See, what'd I tell you, Zeph?"

Zeph gave him an arrogant grin. "Alright, you've got skill, I already knew that."

At that moment, an immense rumble sounded as the wall collapsed when a gigantic iron head broke through. Boreas couldn't believe he had forgotten about Steelix, Giallo's final and most impressive team member. Its gigantic metal body rolled into the cave at great speed, right at Boreas as it heaved its huge head up. The noise was enormous, but not as great as Boreas' terror.

"Don't kill him, or I'll kill you!" yelled Zeph at the monstrous metal snake.

Boreas tried to get out of its path, but it was too large and too fast and it immediately coiled around him, trapping him between three huge metal sections as it slithered into a tunnel. Boreas screamed in pain as the Steelix's iron grip nearly crushed him and the sharp metal edges dug into his flesh. He was very sure the edges like knives were giving him big wounds and he was probably bleeding from them. As the Steelix dragged him through tunnels and chambers like this, he put his front paws on two of the different sections holding him, and unleashed the most powerful pulses of cold he could muster into them. Steelix roared in pain, a piercing metallic roar, and Boreas screamed in pain as well as it tightened the coil around him for a moment, immediately forcing all air out of his lungs as he felt the now familiar pain of ribs breaking from the Steelix's mighty force crushing his chest.

But he couldn't relent, despite the pain. He unleashed as many pulses of cold into his enemy's serpentine body as he could, piercing its metallic armour with them. It uncoiled, dropping him to the ground where he more or less managed to remain standing. They were in another large room with a very beautifully made high ceiling, which gave Steelix enough room to heave its head up above him. Boreas aimed for its eyes and Ice Beamed them, hitting his enemy's weakest points successfully. It roared in pain and anger and its huge head came at him rapidly, its mouth open showing row upon row of sharp metal teeth the size and shape of daggers. Boreas Ice Beamed into its throat, but realised it would not save him from being devoured by this monstrosity.

But then the most curious thing happened: it stopped and slithered away into a tunnel more rapidly than Boreas could follow. For some reason, it had fled from him, a Glaceon not a tenth its size. At that moment, the pain of his injuries really reached him and he collapsed. He was rapidly losing blood from several huge cuts his enemy's sharp edges had made, he had several broken ribs and he could see his skin turn a bruised purple under his fur on various places. He realised he would never survive this much blood loss unless he was treated quickly, so he had to get back to Black or White immediately and really hope they'd win the battle.

He struggled back to four legs and walked back as fast as he could manage. One of his front legs was horribly bruised and hurt so much he had to walk with a clumsy three-legged gait, occasionally collapsing completely from pain and blood loss. His breath wheezed. Steelix's path back was easy to follow by the deep trails of damage the metal snake had left to every room and corridor it had passed through. At last, Boreas managed to reach the chamber the battle had started in as he just couldn't go on. He couldn't even walk any more, so weakened was he by all the blood pouring out of his wounds. The room was only lit by a few small fires now; clearly the battle here had ended. There were several shapes lying on the ground, but it was too dark to see who they were unless he was close by. He dragged himself past Lucario, past Lucius lying on the floor - whether dead or alive Boreas couldn't determine in his own state - past Bastiodon, and past Simipour and Selene. Then, to his great horror, he passed a slender, green, serpentine form just as he couldn't even drag himself on. Octa was bleeding even worse than Boreas was from immense wounds; was horribly maimed, missing his tail-leaves and an arm, and had several large burns. Boreas grabbed his friend's still form with his last strength.

"N-no! Octa... Not you, you can't die!" he desperately whispered.

Octa opened his eyes. Or, rather, eye, as what was left of the other one amidst a horrible wound to the entire left side of his face didn't qualify as an eye any more. "My... dear fellow..." Octa whispered hoarsely as blood dripped out of his mouth. "It seems... I can."

"No... No... Please, Octa... Don't leave me..." he whispered as he embraced Octa tightly. "It's not too late. Black or White can just treat your wounds and give you potions and-"

"No," Octa whispered weakly into his ear. "'Tis too late for that... I... I am happy to at least die in your presence... my dear fellow... You have been... and always shall be... my friend."

Boreas felt tears streaming on his cheeks, but then he realised he was hearing the best sound in the world behind him: the heavy steps of a large, bipedal creature. He knew it was Black, and Octa might still stand a chance if he would return him to his pokéball immediately and only let him out once they were at the pokécenter.

He gratefully turned to look at the feet behind him, but to his surprise and horror they weren't wearing shoes. In fact, they were not human at all: furry and clawed. Boreas looked up slowly across a large, bipedal form covered in dark grey fur that was rather thin at some partially-healed burns. A huge, dark red ponytail with a purple band holding it together hung from a snouted face. Bloodshot eyes with dark purple irises looked down at him above a malicious grin that missed two teeth.

"No... Not you..." Boreas gasped.

"Hello, Boreas," grinned Diego.

–

AUTHOR'S NOTES: I drew the first battle between Boreas and Diego: apenpaap dot deviantart dot com/art/Nemeses-on-the-Ferris-wheel-285103211

I've won Bulbagarden's winter award for best journey-fic with this story!

FEEDBACK: The Bulbafinatic: Q: What's your opinion on how in the Pokémon games, Pokémon can only know four moves at once? It seems kind of silly to me; but if you think about how it's a strategy game, it makes since.

A: Well, as you already said, it makes sense from the point of view that it's just a game, though it makes no sense whatsoever from a realistic point of view. But it works in the game, and that is the only justification it needs to be a mechanic in the games.

Q: Do your characters have move sets?

A: Since my fic is written more out of a realistic direction than a game-wise direction, they don't. It makes no sense that a pokémon could only have four moves.

Q: I'd definitely do concept art for this story, but I don't have anywhere that I can show it. I'm not a user on anything that can preview art, unfortunately.

A: Try becoming a user on deviantArt. It's a good site for showing off things you drew (and wrote; this fic is also published there). I'd love to see some drawings of this story from you.

Q: I once did a picture of Boreas, but then I took another look at it and remembered how you described his hair. Now it's not Boreas; it's just another Glaceon. Bleah.

A: If you want to draw Boreas, there are five important points that distinguish him from other Glaceons: first there is, as you mentioned, the hair. It's relatively long and quite unkempt and shaggy, and not in anything like the normal three-diamond hairstyle at all. You can see it well in the picture of him I drew and linked a few chapters back. The second is his face: it's roughly shaped like a triangle, with a thin, pointy chin and broadening to the top (don't overdo it, though). The third is his eyes; they have cyan irises and white sclera. The fourth is the fact that he has eyebrows. And the fifth is that, since chapter 38, he is missing the tip of his tail and has a large scar on his left cheek.

Q: Maybe I'll leave the 200th review.

A: Who knows? I hope we'll reach it with this chapter's reviews, if not it'll probably be next chapter that breaches the 200.

Q: It was a clever strategy you inserted there; Toxica and Octa's attack. Are you going to use it again? If so, what's it called?

What? I'm not hinting at anything here...! Cough... cough... I have idea... cough...

A: You mean the throwing Toxica at their enemies business? Sure, if you have a nice name for it feel free to suggest it, but it's unlikely to be used again, for obvious reasons.

RuningWitScizorz: Q: Ah, Toxica proves her self at least some-what worthy of her love, add this fact too are Glaceon's helpful advice towards Octa and Octa's convincing way of talking makes her a good canidate to not recieve the house's full wrath bestowed upon herself for Octa and her showing there feelings... Although I can imagine not all of the house will be to pleased with Octa's choice...

A: Indeed, most of them are opposed to it, but at the moment there just wasn't time to stay and discuss it because of this mission to the Relic Castle.

Q: Octa has also risen back to my fav characters, still far from the top ten but he's getting there. ;D

A: Well, it's a good thing he at least got back to your fav characters in the end.

Q: I'd like to finish by saying that this is a quite good story and I do hope to be near, half as good as this possible but till then I'll just watch as a wonderful story nears it's final breath...

A: Thank you, thank you. It's not quite near its final breath yet, though, it's planned to have 77 chapters so we still have 23 to go from here.

Q: I also want to be the first and say, "I demand a sequel!" XD

A: Well, that's great to hear. I have no idea if there will be one. Originally, when I planned the ending to follow the game's quite closely, I was planning on one. But since then I've thrown my plans for the ending around completely, and now that sequel is impossible (not sequels in general, but that particular idea is impossible).

Sonosublime: Q: Go Toxica! She's awesome, and I hope she rubs Galaxia's bitchy nose in the fact that she's marrying into the family (as petty as that would be).

A: Hehe, as nice as that would be it probably wouldn't improve her standing with the family. Galaxia is the oldest and one of the most respected family members, after all.

Q: Of course I now have the sinking the feeling that Octa, Toxica or both will be dead before the end of the story, but I hope that I will be wrong in this case.

A: …

Rattlez: Q: So, I'm glad you brought back the Chandelure even though it was a quick 'scene.' You're the reason I put a Chandelure on my team, just so ya know. :D

A: That's nice to know. I like Chandelure quite a bit, it's a cool pokémon.

Glaceon34: Q: 8.52pm: the chapter name suggest some big fights gonna take place

A: Your first impression was right.

Q: 9.00 : twelve Servines and Serperiors is one third of their force ,then how large is team Plasma?

A: They attacked with about eighty pokémon; they were with about a hundred in total if humans are counted in.

Q: 9.02 : as i read this it suddenly dawn on me where the heck Unova police forces,gym leaders go

A: The Gym Leaders are busy trying to get the remaining trainers in their city somewhat organised and combat the rising anti-trainer sentiments. The police forces are officially trying to stop Team Plasma, but doing an utterly lousy job at it. They have probably been infiltrated ages ago; Team Plasma prepared for this war for more than twenty years while the trainers only began to learn about Plasma's existence two years ago.

Q: and just how large team Plasma is to make such a full scale war!

A: I'm not sure of exact numbers, but don't imagine it's a full-scale war with front lines and battles with tens of thousands of combatants. Since both sides share the same land, Unova, there are no battle lines, and also the war is fought more about people's minds than in big battles. It is more akin to the wizarding war in the later Harry Potter books than to the second World War.

Q: 9.06 :Wow such an inspiring speech! where did you learn to write like that?very proud and inspiring!

A: Thank you. I suppose if I learnt it anywhere it was while reading The Lord of the Rings.

Q: 9.11 : confess in the heat a battle? nah that 's old school!

A: Sure, kissing in the midst of battle might be a bit of a cliché, but it's a cliché I absolutely love to bits. You'll see it pop up again later on, I can already tell you.

Q: 9.13 : when chose servine as my starter when I play white, I later regret my decision, it has great stat but the fact it is pure grass type plus a pretty poor move pool without TM is really a great disadvantage

A: I chose Snivy as my starter as well, and never once regretted it. I couldn't care less about its moveset, given how cool of a pokémon it is.

Q: 9.23 : well this explain where team plasma get their support from

A: Precisely. And it also shows what the Gym Leaders are trying to stop.

Q: 9.28 :huh? can you use handsome to describe a girl? I thought it is only use for male.

A: As far as I'm aware, while the term is perhaps used more frequently for males, it is by no means exclusive to them and can be used for females as well.

Q: And what does Boreas has against esper?

A: Nothing specific, really. Let's not forget he is sometimes quite petty and childish; this is basically just him being like that. Though he would tell you it's because Esper is an idiot.

Q: Q&A: that is not excatly what I mean. What i worry is her safety Diego and those Sage have tried to kill her once what make her think she can walk around with them like that especially without N!

A: But she doesn't know Ghetsis told Diego to do that; as far as she knows it was just him being evil. She's planning to get back to him for it, of course, but she doesn't realise the Sages wanted her dead.

Q: *google search*... ok i give up , I don't know what half of the games are T.T

A: Okay, try rereading the bit the original question was about a few times. Try to think of what 'games' Aqua could be referring to. Try rereading my answer to your question if understanding still doesn't dawn. Try having a bit of a dirty mind and rereading it again if that doesn't help.

Q: Have any planned on celebarating 200th reviews yet?

A: Nothing apart from a quick congratulation to the person making the review, by all chance. I have a celebration for a certain review planned, though.

SquareRootofNine: Q: Wow, talk about devastating. Shouldn't the gym leaders/Alder be doing something about this?

A: They're trying to, but they were caught horribly off-guard by the entire war. Team Plasma is highly organised and has been preparing for it for more than twenty years, while they have little organisation and little preparation, and now cities like Castelia are becoming very anti-trainer.

Arcane1ManaX: Q: I'm astounded at the rate that you turn out chapters. It's almost like you aren't human, at the speed you turn out chapters...

This can mean only one thing. YOU ARE AN ANDROID FROM THE FUTURE SENT BACK IN TIME TO KILL A FUTURE FACTION LEADER WHO HAS RISEN AGAINST OUR ROBOT OPPRESSORS WHO HAPPENS TO ENJOY POKEMON.

A: …I'll be back.


	55. Fight or Flight?

Chapter Fifty-Five: Fight or Flight?

Boreas tried to put himself between Diego and Octa's still form, determined not to let the cruel Zoroark any closer to his dying friend. "Stay away from him, you monster!" he commanded furiously. "I won't let you hurt him again! Harm one more scale on his body, and I'll make you regret it!"

Diego laughed coldly. "Don't worry, Boreas, I won't hurt him any more. After all, what's the use of hurting someone who has a minute left at best?"

Boreas wanted nothing more than to tear Diego's limbs off for killing Octa, but he couldn't even stand, so weakened was he. Even sitting was hard; he was half-lying over Octa to protect him. "Why did you do this to him?" he shouted, powerless. "He did not deserve to die. Do you have any idea what an amazing person it was that you killed?"

Diego reached down. With a final outpouring of strength to protect Octa, like a small animal defending its wounded mate from a much larger predator, Boreas bit Diego's paw and fired an Ice Beam at him. Diego fell as the Ice Beam hit his stomach, so Boreas pounced him with furious determination. He tried to pump pulses of cold through his enemy's body, but at that moment the energy his determination to save Octa had given him had simply run out. His vision became dotted with black spots that soon filled his field of view, his heartbeat sounded like a loud drum in his ears, and a splitting headache and dizziness clouded his mind as he collapsed on top of Diego.

He felt the Zoroark's powerful grip around his neck and was in even more pain than he already was as he was lifted up by it again. Diego lifted him all the way up to his face's height. Diego looked into Boreas' eyes, a bloodshot purple with dark circles under them. "I didn't do that to him," his voice sounded very far away as Boreas drifted at the edge of consciousness. "Or at least, I didn't do most of it. I just contributed a small bit. Giallo's pokémon did most of the work."

"You... You will all pay for this," Boreas said through his throat being clenched as he returned to full consciousness. "I will do things so horrible to you even your twisted mind can't even imagine them. Because Octa was the best friend I've ever had! He was kind, smart, noble, wise, and so much more! I loved him like he was my brother; more than that even! I swear, Diego, my revenge will be horrible!"

Diego grinned. "Touching. I'm very curious to see how you're going to rain this horrible vengeance down on my head, as it seems to me that I'm here in pretty good condition, holding you up by your throat once more, while you're at Death's door. And it will be my pleasure to open it for you. Because your use to Team Plasma has ended."

Diego threw Boreas to the ground hard, making him groan in pain. He tried to get up, but could do nothing but lie there and pant. Dark spots danced before his eyes, his vision went unfocussed, and then a bright light spot appeared before his eyes as he lay on his side. He felt something on the upper side of his head, and realised it was Diego's foot, fortunately with no weight on it at the moment. Though it was hard to detect amidst the stinging smell of smoke that hung in the chamber, he now realised he had been smelling Diego when he entered the Relic Castle. "Ba... Bastard..."

"It's over, Boreas," whispered Diego. "But before I kill you, you need to know one last thing. I want you to understand before the end, see the horror at the revelation in your eyes as your live ebbs away. I- Argh!" The foot was suddenly taken off Boreas' head, but his mind and eyes were too clouded to realise what was happening.

"If you ever touch him again, you shall die the most horrifying of deaths, you malicious Mephistophelean monstrosity!" said a deep, noble voice angrily.

Boreas thought he heard sounds of combat. "How stupid of me. I should've killed you completely when I had the chance."

"Indeed, that would have been the wiser course of action," the noble voice said between sounds of fighting. "For now I shall protect Boreas from you, or die trying! You shall hurt him nevermore! This I swear upon the name of Equinox the great!"

Boreas had to indulge his curiosity, despite how his mind drifted on the edge of unconsciousness and the pain he felt. He managed to turn to his other side and saw Diego fighting a Serperior. He laughed weakly, but happily as he realised Octa had evolved to save them both. Boreas closed his eyes, feeling safe and reassured that Octa was alive and would protect him.

–

Octa had no time to revel in the bizarre feeling of having a new body. Diego was a mighty opponent, so he had to keep his mind on the battle. That he had managed to induce his evolutionary metamorphosis had come as quite a surprise to Octa. He had tried to evolve before, but no amount of thought to that end had made him evolve any more than it had given him wings or turned him orange.

When Bastiodon and Klinklang had together wounded him so terribly, even to the point where one of his arms had got stuck in Klinklang's machinery and had been torn off by the grinding gears, he had realised evolution was his only hope. As his blood had flowed out of his body, he had tried and tried and wished to evolve, but nothing had happened and he got weaker and weaker.

By the time the battle in the room had ended and Boreas had found him, he had been more or less resigned to die. At least he was dying in a manner worthy of a descendant of Equinox, and despite the recent arguments about his choice of mate, his family would likely remember him fondly and honour his memory like those of his illustrious ancestors.

But then, as he felt his final breath near, Diego had come in, and Boreas had defended him, a dying Servine, with such valour. It had warmed Octa's heart, but he also realised Boreas was about to die himself. It had given him such determination, he had managed to evolve in his weakened state, fortunately while Diego wasn't looking at him.

And now he was fighting Diego. Having recently evolved to a Serperior was both a blessing and a curse: on the one hand his new form was very powerful and agile, on the other he was not used to fighting with it and made a few grave errors. The lack of rear legs especially took getting used to.

He had to hurry and defeat Diego as soon as possible. Boreas was gravely injured, though not nearly as gravely as Octa had been moments ago, and would need medical aid as soon as possible.

–

"My dear fellow! My dear fellow, please, I implore you to reawaken!" the voice returned Boreas from his sleep.

"Whuh?" he said as he opened his eyes the little bit he could manage. He was in pain all over, but didn't care as he saw Octa's face before him. It had changed: his friend's yellow skin had turned white, the single yellow extension behind his head had split into three purple extensions, and the patterns on his head were different. He looked nobler and more aloof, yet he was still, unmistakably, Octa. Especially his warm brown eyes were clearly Octa's. Boreas managed to put a paw around his neck and hugged his friend. "Octa... You bastard, you had me thinking you were dead! Oh, who am I kidding, I'm so happy to see you... You've evolved to such a good-looking Serperior..."

Octa smiled warmly as he hugged back, using both the long, Snivy-like arms which were shared in his family even when they evolved to Serperior, and his now very lengthy body to wrap Boreas up in a tight hug. "Thank you, my dear fellow," he said. Octa's voice had become deeper, more melodic and noble now that he had evolved. "But 'tis yourself whom you must thank for the survival of us both. Your brave defence of me even as you were grievously wounded gave me the motivation to make myself evolve. But now, you cannot allow yourself to fall back asleep; I need you to stay awake. You are losing a lot of blood, but I shall take care of you and rescue you. Do not be afraid."

"Th... thank you... But I'm not afraid... I'm with you..."

Octa smiled warmly. "Thank you, my dear fellow. We shall have to wait for Black to find us for real medical aid, but for now I can at least prevent as much blood as possible from escaping through your wounds by holding you this tightly."

"Where's Diego? Did you get him?"

"I'm afraid I did not. I battled him for a while until your brother entered the chamber and joined the fight against him. Diego fled, your brother pursued, but I stayed here to care for you."

"Hope Zeph gets that bastard..." mumbled Boreas.

"So do I, my dear fellow," Octa smiled, "although I am merely happy we are both alive, and shall make sure you'll remain living."

"Thanks... What about the others? Did they survive the battle? And did we win?"

"The battle is not over yet, my dear fellow; 'tis merely ended in this particular chamber. Our enemy's Magnezone and Steelix both remain fighting in a different chamber and shall be very difficult for our allies to defeat."

"The battle's still going on? Then what're you wasting your time for with me, go help using your great new Serperior-powers!"

"No, my dear fellow; you require care and I'm not willing to risk your demise."

"But what about Toxica? Don't you think she might need my help? I mean, Steelix did this to me pretty much on its own."

"Toxica is capable of caring for herself; you are not in your present condition. I shall remain here until Black finds us and returns you to your pokéball."

That, fortunately, happened to be only moments later. Black was wounded and bleeding from his arm and his leg, but he ran in carrying an unconscious Toxica and took up care for Boreas as Octa went to fight Giallo's remaining pokémon.

–

Octa slithered through the tunnels as fast as he could, looking for Zephyrus. Now that Boreas was safely in Black's hands, he needed to use his considerable prowess in battle to defeat their enemies.

Suddenly the horrific visage of Steelix appeared ahead in the tunnel, rapidly coming into his direction, as fast, heavy and unstoppable like a high-speed train. Octa immediately shot an Energy Ball, but it was harmlessly absorbed by the creature's steel armour. Octa pressed himself against the wall to prevent the much larger snake from running him over, and fortunately managed to just avoid being crushed between the wall and the mighty metal creature as it passed by. Octa caught a quick glimpse of Giallo, the corpulent, yellow-clothed Sage on Steelix's back, covered between two sections of the serpent.

Octa endeavoured to stab his Leaf Blade between two sections of the Steelix as it passed, but it harmlessly bounced off. When the gigantic thing had finally passed him Octa cursed and followed it, realising it was returning to the chamber where his dear Boreas, Toxica, and Black still were. A mighty wave of flame hit Steelix from behind, though Octa found the amount of heat and light said flames created, especially considering his proximity to them, somewhat disappointing. Zeph was also pursuing Steelix.

"Sorry 'bout that, Octa!" he said as they ran after the Steelix. Unfortunately it seemed to be faster than both of them, as they were falling behind.

"'Tis no problem; you did not hit me with it. Where is Diego?"

"Escaped! I lost the bastard when he ran through the battle in that room, so I juft joined the battle and beat Magnezone, and then Steelix and Giallo fled! How's Boreas?"

"Black is taking care of him presently, but if we do not catch up, Steelix may kill them yet!"

–

By the time Boreas was released from the bizarre world inside his pokéball, he was in the Castelia pokécenter. While his wounds were pretty serious, they were quite easy to heal with the technology in the pokécenter. He wasn't the only one who had made the return journey in their pokéball either: Lucius and Selene had both been nearly crushed to death by their enemies, but where fortunately still alive. Toxica had a severe concussion and her skull had been cracked by Bastiodon. All of White's pokémon had been dangerously wounded as well. Fortunately, the pokécenter had been able to save everyone except Simipour.

Octa and Zeph had been the only ones without dangerous wounds (in Octa's case that solely was due to evolution, of course), and Boreas immediately wanted to hear the whole story of the battle from Octa, while Zeph was insisting to Nurse War's Audino that he was not hurt in any way and didn't want to be checked up. After Octa had told him the entire story, he wanted to hear it from Zeph as well. Apparently, Zeph had managed to follow Diego until he came into the room where Magnezone and Steelix were fighting Febby, Esper, and Simipour. By the time he was there, Zeph was already quite far behind Diego (He lamented once again that he hadn't evolved to a Jolteon), and Zeph had lost him in the crossfire.

So he had joined the battle instead, but unfortunately Simipour, Febby, and Esper all fell to their enemies soon after. Zeph had managed to knock out Magnezone on his own, and was about to try and defeat Steelix, when Giallo had ordered his pokémon to retreat. Zeph had followed them, of course, but, cursing his slower Flareon shape once again, regretted to say he couldn't keep up with them, and neither could Octa when he joined in the chase. For some reason, though, Giallo hadn't made his Steelix kill Black, who was in that room alone, but the monster had carefully avoided even slithering over Black and Giallo had just retrieved all of his pokémon without fighting any more.

Then Steelix had burrowed rapidly into the ground with its trainer still on its back, at an incredible speed. Zeph and Octa had tried to follow them into the tunnel, but it collapsed soon after Steelix had passed through it. Fortunately, White had not been injured too badly and could walk after Black gave her some treatment. They had walked back through the desert slowly, until finally reaching the Castelia pokécenter where everyone had been healed.

A sad exception was Simipour, who had been shocked so much by Magnezone there was no more saving him. Boreas was sorry to hear Simipour was dead. He didn't know him well, but he had seemed like a pleasant, cheerful sort of guy on the journey to the Castle. He felt he really had to offer Febby his condolences.

"I'm sorry for your loss, Febby," he said sadly as he reached her and Esper. "Yours too, Edward."

Febby's eyes were red with tears. "Th-thank you, Boreas... He's the second friend I've lost to Team Plasma... First Thomas and now..."

"Team Plasma will pay for it," said Boreas determinedly. "For them, for Capella, and for all the other pokémon and people they've killed."

"Really?" asked Febby with a small voice.

"Yes, if I have anything to say about it, they will. They may claim they're doing good, but it's nothing more than evil with a nice mask on."

–

Boreas walked through the Icirrus pokécenter's corridors. He was happy he would see Aqua again in a moment, but mainly preoccupied. Many things bothered him about the battle in the Relic Castle. He was happy to have won with only one casualty, but it was so strange for Giallo to have retreated when he had basically won. Zeph and Octa had been the only ones of their side still capable of fighting at the end, while Giallo had Diego and the incredibly mighty Steelix. Yet, instead of destroying them all with the near-invincible metal monster that was that Steelix, Giallo had chosen to instead use it to retrieve his knocked-out pokémon and burrow a way out of the castle.

But that was not even the weirdest thing. By all rights, Giallo shouldn't have been there. It had taken a lifetime archaeologist like Lenora a long time to discover the Light Stone should be in the Relic Castle. It seemed unlikely Plasma would've just happened to have made the same discovery at almost the same moment, particularly because when Octa's family had been attacked, Team Plasma had also had knowledge of their plans. Somehow, Plasma knew everything they did.

And where _was_ the Light Stone anyway? Lenora had had no idea when Black reported it was missing, and had promised to find out. But had also warned it would take a long time; so now the plan was to just continue the journey and travel to Opelucid to battle Drayden, the final Gym Leader they had to beat to be allowed to challenge the Pokémon League.

Boreas tried to put these thoughts out of his mind as he entered Aqua's room. "Guess who's back, my love?" he saw the room was empty; no Aqua on the bed. "My love?"

He was pounced suddenly and roughly from the side, thrown over to his back, and something blue jumped on top of him in an instant, then kissed him passionately. "Oh, Boreas, how I've missed you," said Aqua once the kiss ended.

"Y-yeah," Boreas stammered, overwhelmed by being suddenly pounced and the kiss. "I missed you too, my love. I take it your back's better, then?"

"Mm- Much better!" said Aqua happily as she covered his face in kisses. "I've been- mm- recovering much better and faster than-mm- expected, and I've been able to walk and run and swim and do all other kinds of things perfectly for days now! Though... Some things I haven't tried to do yet..."

Boreas winked. "I'll be happy to help you try those things."

"Oh good," grinned Aqua as she kissed him again and again. "Because I've been waiting for you, longing for you, my sexy Glaceon."

Boreas' mind was swimming in desire as they kissed with more and more fire, so he really had to force his mind to stay focussed. "Not- mm- here, my lovely- mm- Aqua. We're- mm- in a public room in a- mm- pokécenter."

"I don't- mm- care; I want you- mm- right now."

With a titanic effort of will, Boreas managed to softly push Aqua away from him. "So do I, but just wait a few more minutes. We'll go outside to a better place, and then... I'm all yours."

"Okay..." said Aqua as they stood up. "But be warned: I'm jumping you the moment we're out of sight."

Boreas laughed. "Then let's find some privacy as fast as we can."

–

Boreas panted in exhaustion. He felt like he could easily fall asleep, though the Sun hadn't even set yet. Aqua was snuggling up to him, her body feeling warm against his. She was breathing rapidly and he could feel her heartbeat racing.

"That was delightful," she panted. "The best fun I've had since... Well, since last time, really. So, you're the best judge of this, my amazing Boreas: did I recover fully?"

Boreas was about to say yes, but caught himself. "Hmm, I'm not sure. I think I'll need to run more tests tonight. And tomorrow. And many other times; after all I have to be sure, and for that I need lots of data. Lots and lots of data."

"Of course," said Aqua, innocently. "I'll be happy to give you all the data you require. But I think tonight could be a bit of a problem. I don't think the real doctor will take kindly to you playing doctor with me in the middle of the night. After all, I haven't been discharged yet, and they say I need rest. And after this, I couldn't agree more, to be honest. But in two days, if all goes well, I'm free to leave."

"I look forward to it." Then he remembered her plans and felt a lot less elated. "On second thought... Since you're going to rejoin Team Plasma, I guess we won't have much time to spend together after that..."

"Actually..." said Aqua with a little smile, "we may yet. I'm not going back to Team Plasma."

Boreas beamed widely. "My love, that's amazing news! But why?"

"Well, there's several reasons, really. I think humans may not as bad as I originally thought they were. Nurse Ebola really took very good care of me and was really friendly... And I've seen other humans whose pokémon were in the pokécenter, and they really cared for them a lot... I can't forgive them for what they did, but maybe separating pokémon from them completely is too much. It would do as much harm as good. Secondly, I think Team Plasma is not good. The things they've done and continue to do are wrong, even is their cause is right. N is a good man, but his underlings, especially the Sages... They aren't. Their war is an evil thing, and I refuse to fight it."

Boreas gave Aqua a soft, loving kiss. "I'm so happy to hear that, my love."

"But wait, there's more: In fact, I think I may travel with you to Opelucid. Don't get me wrong, I don't want to join Black's team, and I am strictly neutral in this war, but wouldn't it be great if I accompanied you on the journey? I feel a lot less bad about being with humans now, thanks to you and N and Nurse Ebola."

"Really?" stammered Boreas happily.

"Yeah," Aqua giggled as she nuzzled him. "Is it everything you had ever hoped for?"

"Well, not _everything_," teased Boreas.

They kept lying there, cuddling happily as neither of them wanted to get up to return to the pokécenter yet. Boreas knew he should be happy, yet his mind couldn't help but return to the battle in the Relic castle. He tried to find an explanation for it all; there had to be one.

"My love," asked Aqua, "are you alright?"

"Hmm?" Boreas startled and returned a smile to his face. "I'm fine, don't worry."

"You're not fine, love, you're troubled by something."

Boreas sighed. "Very strange things have happened in the Relic Castle; even before then. Plasma seems to know our every move, yet retreats when it's close to a complete victory. I'm trying to think of an explanation to that and others things. It's quite maddening; I'm almost beginning to think it was all just a big coincidence... Aqua, did you ever hear anything about a mole Team Plasma might have while you were with N?"

Aqua frowned. "I am neutral in this war, so I don't want you to ask me things like that. But, just for this one time: no, I never heard anything about moles, but that doesn't mean there are none."

Boreas sighed. "Well, I guess I should just try to forget about it; it's getting me nowhere. But that's hard; especially at night when I'm trying to sleep I keep thinking about it."

"Well, fortunately you now have me to distract you at night instead. And believe me when I tell you I won't give you the time to think about these riddles."

–

AUTHOR'S NOTES: Octa's alive! I had considered keeping him as a Servine the entire story, as I like Servine better than Serperior, but I eventually decided I preferred to have him evolve fully near the ending. I hope it didn't feel too much like a deus ex machina to you; after all I have been hinting at the fact that he would evolve soon since the beginning of this part, and I even had Boreas even desperately told Capella to evolve when she died, in the hopes someone would remember that when this cliffhanger came. Surprisingly, no-one guessed he would survive by evolving.

FEEDBACK: For All That Remains: Q: Congrats on the award, you certainly deserve it!

A: Thank you. It came as quite a surprise to me, though a most pleasant one.

Q: Also, I think the chapter title really fits. It's a biblical reference, correct? "Ashes to ashes, dust to dust?" Something like that...

A: Yeah, I'm pretty sure that phrase originates from the Bible. It is often said at funerals and such, so I figured it fit well with the seeming death of Octa, as well as the literal dustiness of the castle.

Q: Can't wait to see the next fight between Boreas and Diego-something tells me it won't turn out like normal, with Boreas getting his ass handed to him.

A: Well, you'll have to wait some more for the next fight between them.

Guardian54: Q: 54. Really? In Chapter 54 you had to do this sort of thing?

A: Yup. I take it 54 is your favourite number? Mine is 5 (though 25 by extension too, as 5's square).

Q: What is so hideously annoying to me is the huge number of resistances Steel-types have.

A: I quite like them myself, I just think they should've made them weak to electric (conductivity) and water (rusting) instead of fighting (which makes no sense at all as a weakness for steel. Presumably the reasoning goes: "fighting is strong to rock because a powerful punch can shatter stone, and steel is just a hard sort of rock." Which is utter crap, of course, as steel with never shatter, no matter how hard the impact, it will bend and budge. Or car crashes wouldn't result in crumpled cars and weirdly bent bits of metal, but in an entire road covered in metal rubble and no more cars). It makes sense to me that a steel-armoured creature would be hard to hit.

The Bulbafinatic: Q: Why, Octa, why! You can't die!

A: I assure you, he can. Not yet, though.

Q: Seriously, Zeph. Where have you been off to at night? And what are sand fleas supposed to be?

A: They're flea-like creatures living in sandy areas; one of the three main reasons sleeping on beaches is a bad idea (flood and drunk people are the other two).

Q: I have this growing impression that Zeph has a girlfriend that he's seeing at night.

A: In the middle of the desert?

Q: Unless Zeph has a boyfriend, that would be... uh... yeah, well, never mind...

A: Then he would, just like the hypothetical girlfriend, presumably be very good at hiding if he managed to follow them across the desert without anyone noticing.

Q: Poor Boreas. Poor Octa. Poor TOXICA. How will she react to this? Well, I guess Octa's family will still be purely Snivy / Servine / Serperior, after all... weep...

A: Don't count him out just yet.

RandomGuy520: Q: Wow. That's all I got to say. I've read every chapter of this story but I would never have guessed Octa was going to die. Jeez, talk about seeing the future of this story fail.

A: Heh, well, he didn't die yet.

Q: And this is to put the 200th reveiw. CONGRATULATIONS! I'm proud. Although it's going to take longer to get how many reveiws Tales of Flame has. That story has 3000 something reveiws.

A: Congratulations on getting the 200th review, and thanks to everyone who reviewed; I love you all to exactly the level you are comfortable with. And I don't think this story will ever reach 3000 reviews; it'd have to get about 140 reviews per remaining chapter for that! I'm expecting somewhere around 300, maybe 400 reviews by the end.

Glaceon34: Q: 5.25 PM: ha, now Boreas will understand how Octa feel when he is around with Aqua.

A: Hehe, yeah, he gets to look at that situation from the other side now.

Q: 5.28 : black and White,hum,when did they get together?

A: They didn't. Presumably the phrase that confused you was "...Black and White, Toxica and Octa, Febby and Esper (all four of whom seemed to have their lips glued to their respective partners at times..." But notice the word _four_ there; not _six_. Black and White were not part of the statement between brackets.

Q: 5.35 : I wonder what are they whisper about, and don't tell me I poke my nose in their bussines ,i'm curious!*sigh* just hope they will live to do what they plan after all of this

A: Alright, I won't tell you you poke your nose in their business; you have already done so yourself. But I can tell you what they were talking about. They were talking about games.

Q: waiiittt... a second how can Boreas how the X-transceiver?

A: I'm not quite sure what you're asking. If I assume the second 'how' is supposed to be 'hold': I've told you before, there's no reason why holding something without opposable thumbs would be impossible; it's just a bit harder.

Q: where the heck did Boreas learn about these all sort of thing!

A: I don't know, because I don't know what sort of things you mean.

Q: wow, how can they suffer that much damaged, when they are 2 against 1,even when Black fight against 2 sages in the cave they didn't suffer this bad ( Capella 's death is a great loss, but overall they didn't hurt this much) not counting the fast they much have got stronger.

A: Actually, there was only one sage in Chargestone Cave. One of the reasons things went so badly is that Giallo uses the steel-type, and that's one of the toughest types. Especially because they only had a few fire-types who could hit them supereffectively. Also, White is not as powerful as Black. While she has certainly got better since they were in Castelia for the first time, she hasn't travelled through Unova like Black and trained her pokémon by travelling.

The Man With no Name: Q: cant wait for chapter 55

A: I hope it didn't disappoint.

UNKNOWN: Q: Octa? Dead? Impossible... There has to be some kind of Deus Ex Machina that will save the day!

A: I'm rather disappointed by that conviction, considering one of the reasons Capella died was to show that I am quite willing and able to kill off major characters. If people are still convinced a deus ex machina will save the day, I guess it's a good thing I have another major character death planned to remind you people can die in this story.

Q: Who knows, maybe Octa Holmes will get revived like in the movie.

A: Heh, but Octa is Watson, remember? Boreas is Holmes.

Pie's Posse-Arcane: Q: If you kill off Octa, there goes of half the stories charm. He, so far is my favorite character, and to see him go would indeed upset me, as well as a rather large number of other fans.

A: Then it's a good thing he's still alive at the moment.

TrueBolt: Q: Um, I think you must have been tired or somethin when you wrote this chapter because there's a lot of spelling oopses.

A: Yes, I did make a shameful amount of errors; they are all corrected now, thanks.

Q: I think the floor would still freeze. Boreas is shooting frozen air concentrated in a small area, so if the floor wouldn't freeze, technically his ice beam wouldn't even activate. I think. Maybe… Maybe I don't know what I'm talking about, because air can always freeze, but with no liquid in the air, it wouldn't crystallize?

A: Ice Beam is more like a beam of very cold energy than an actual beam of ice (ice is a solid, so not exactly well-suited for beams), so it would still work.

Q: Can Flareon even learn Lava Plume?

A: Yes. It learns it at level 78 since Platinum.

Q: or he could try to convince Octa to evolve. I is possible after all.

A: Congrats on guessing how Octa was going to be saved!


	56. The Spartan Mayor

Chapter Fifty-Six: The Spartan Mayor

The journey over Route 8 was a relatively uneventful one. The road slowly descended from the high Icirrus into the forested vales between the mountains, past rivers and the occasional lake. Then they travelled north-east through the vales, and the mountains around them slowly became lower as they continued. Then they were between hills and then they entered the wide plains between the White and Black mountain ranges. Here the route became a small path through marshland dotted with small lakes. Boreas later remembered little of it, aside from the joy of travelling with Aqua. Being around her every day and night was delightful and made the war and the problems that had worried him so much before seem distant and unimportant.

The swamp didn't bother Boreas much, though he got quite dirty and wet from the soft mud. The grass-types and Selene didn't mind either, and Aqua even enjoyed the wet landscape. But not everyone felt like that.

"Stupid, buggering, blasted, bloody swamp!" Zeph cursed behind Boreas. He was stuck deep in the mud, swearing angrily as he tried to pull himself out and walk on.

Boreas laughed at the view of his brother stuck in mud that reached almost to his shoulders. "Need some help, Zeph?"

Zeph managed to drag himself out before Boreas could help him. "Ftinking bog, I hope the humans will drain it and build an actual road here!"

Boreas giggled at his brother, who was covered in mud. "You know, I walked over that mud myself just now and only sank to my ankles. If you sank into it that far, you only have yourself to blame."

"Shut up, Black and Lucius also sink deep into the swamp all the time."

"Yeah, but they're both much heavier than us. It's only normal they would sink deep, but if that happens to you, it's your own fault for being clumsy."

"Hmpf," groaned Zeph as he dragged himself on. "Whatever. I don't see why we couldn't just take the train. We wouldn't have to travel through this ugly bog and get all wet if we did; we'd have been in Opelucid days ago!"

"Because we'd get little training like that and would probably lose to Drayden. Besides, this is fun, seeing all these places . Where's your sense of adventure?"

"Somewhere warm and dry," grumbled Zeph as he sunk into the mud once again.

–

After the swamps of Route 8 they crossed the old Tubeline Bridge, a metallic bridge from the industrial age over the train tracks. When they had crossed it, all that stood between them and Opelucid was the simple, forested road of Route 9. It was on the last night before reaching Opelucid that Boreas had a terrifying epiphany. He had lain awake all night, while Aqua was sleeping obliviously in his arms. Normally her soft breathing on him and the slow beat of her heart against his would take his mind off of things, but not tonight.

He had been thinking all night, and finally reached a conclusion. It seemed ridiculous at first, and he had almost dismissed it immediately, but then he realised there was more to it than it seemed. It explained a great many things. It had to be a coincidence, though; it couldn't be true. But even the small details matched up. Tiny little things Boreas had never paid much thought suddenly were clues to a sinister truth.

Boreas trembled in fury and fear when he realised it really was true, horrible though it was. He could punch himself for such stupidity and naivety. How could he have fallen for it? He had half a mind of getting up and killing the mole while sleeping, but he realised if he was right, the mole wouldn't actually be sleeping. Attacking that person now would probably end up in disaster, as Boreas' friends would of course have no idea what was going on and think Boreas had gone mental; they would try to stop him, and that could be the death of someone with the mole in their midst. No, Boreas needed to confront his friends with the evidence one-by-one and in secret, and only then attack. Until all his friends knew what was going on, he had to pretend he knew nothing.

Boreas breathed a bit easier. At least he was now the one with an advantage, as only he knew he knew this, not his enemy. Though he would have to wait with his revenge, Boreas could at least keep an eye on the mole meanwhile. Aside from the anger and fear, Boreas now realised he felt paradoxical admiration and respect as well: it was all a very impressive trick, and a role well-played, as no-one had suspected the mole, not even Boreas before this moment. Boreas could only imagine how hard it had been and how much work. But that admiration wouldn't stop Boreas from killing the mole once he had the chance.

–

Opelucid was a strange city. Its outer parts were ancient, with old buildings of wood and stone and very pretty architecture and monuments. But at the city's centre, it abruptly changed to a futuristic city of plastic, glass, and metal. The inhabitants were all using the latest gadgets here, while there had barely been any in the outer parts. An information leaflet explained the city's centre had been destroyed during the last war Unova had been in. Instead of rebuilding it as it had been, it had been rebuilt in contemporary style, and at that point the new centre had begun attracting an entirely different kind of person than the old city.

The city's centre had been in continuous renewal since then to remain modern. Many inhabitants of the outer parts of the city considered the centre an ugly tumour ruining their city, wile many people in the centre considered the outer parts useless old ruins that were in the way of the expansion of the centre and full of nostalgic old buffoons.

At least the Opelucidians seemed more interested in arguing about which part of the city was best than in arguing about pokémon. While there were few trainers or pokémon on the streets and Black got a few unpleasant remarks thrown at him, the situation wasn't as bad as in Castelia.

Black was marvelling so much at Opelucid's futuristic centre that he nearly bumped into Alder before recognising him. "Cha-champion Alder? You here?" he stammered.

The Champion's long yellow poncho looked comically out of place between the red, yellow, or blue with black spandex suits most inhabitants of the centre wore. "Yes, Black, I'm here. And so are you. And although our purposes are slightly different, we are both here to meet Drayden. You want to challenge him, I want to use his personal library to try and find information about the Light Stone."

Black walked along with Alder. "Then Lenora hasn't made any progress finding it?"

Alder shook his head. "Nothing. But I'm sure we'll find it eventually. If it's in any museum or collection in the world, there should be records of it. Even if some treasure hunter found it and sold it somewhere, we might still find it. I can only hope we can find the stone before it's too late... We are losing this war. But that's enough about this; let's talk about my future challenger. We barely had time to speak last time we met, but the time before that, I asked you what you were going to do when you were Champion. You didn't know, but agreed with me that there was more than just becoming stronger. But becoming Champion was no more than a distant hope then; now you are on the eve of claiming your eighth badge. I want to ask you the same question once more."

Black pondered it for a moment. "A few months ago, Capella - my Dratini - died in battle against Team Plasma. It lowered my wish to be Champion and made me want to stop my quest. But I continued to stop Team Plasma. It's what this is about, much more than being Champion. And stopping them is exactly what I'll do when I'm Champion. I want to use my power for good."

Alder nodded. "The death of a pokémon can make us think about our friendship with them and what it means better. I pursued power for its own sake madly, until my oldest friend, my starter pokémon, died. It changed my outlook on life."

They had reached a square, where a crowd was listening to a skeleton-like old bearded man in a green robe talk. Boreas frowned and charged up an Ice Beam as Black began to order his pokémon to attack, but...

"Don't," said Alder. "It would force him to take the crowd hostage. And even if he didn't, a battle between three trainers as powerful as us would cause too much collateral damage in a densely populated city like this. Let's listen to what he has to say instead."

They joined the crowd, but Boreas' mind quickly began to wander instead of listening to Ryoku blather on about how glorious Team Plasma was and how great N and the legendary Zekrom were. Boreas was taken back to the very first time he had met Team Plasma, back in Accumula. They had seemed so reasonable to the little Eevee he had been then; he had had no idea yet of the surprising adventures that were awaiting him. He felt a certain nostalgia to those days. Things had been so simple and calm, and he had been young and small. Plasma were just some people in weird suits, Diego was just a Zorua disguised as a Purrloin, and he just a little Eevee cub who had recently lost his family but got two great friends in exchange.

He had almost been given away for adoption that day. Boreas wondered how different his life would've been if he hadn't chosen to stay with Black. He couldn't begin to imagine. He would never have met Aqua, or Capella, Selene, Toxica, Lucius, Febby, or any other person he'd met on his journey. He might've kept some contact with Octa, but even that would probably wane. On the other hand, he would never have been in the war and never had to see friends die. He realised that was completely worth it as he gave Aqua a kiss on her cheek.

"What was that for?" she asked with a surprised smile.

"I'm just happy to be in love with the loveliest girl in the world."

Aqua raised an eyebrow. "Don't worry, my love, I'm not about to go back to Team Plasma, despite this speech. I agree with most of what he is saying, but Team Plasma's way of enforcing their will is wrong."

"Glad to hear it, but I wasn't worried about that."

Next to them, two humans - a young dark-skinned girl with long hair and an athletic old man with a big white beard that hid his mouth completely - were also watching.

"What is this all about?" the girl asked. "He talks about liberating pokémon like he's friendly, yet he's also threatening to kill people who don't listen? That's off-the-charts strange!"

The old man nodded. "The cooperation of people and pokémon is how Unova came to exist to begin with. If a pokémon really didn't want anything to do with humans, it would simply leave... Capturing a pokémon in a pokéball doesn't mean you've captured its heart."

"It's been a while, Iris and Drayden," Alder greeted them.

"Oh, hello, mr. Alder," said Iris.

"What's wrong?" asked Drayden. "What does the wandering Champion who left the Pokémon League need from us?" It was weird to see him talk, as his mouth was completely hidden behind his beard, making it look like he had none and his beard was just moving up and down when he spoke.

"I'm sure you've heard by now that Team Plasma's king has reawoken Zekrom from the Dark Stone. Black and I need to awake Reshiram from the Light Stone to stop Team Plasma, but first we'll need to find it."

Drayden nodded. "Come with me to my house, then. I'll tell you as much about the legendary dragons as I can, and you might find something in my library."

They followed Drayden and Iris to Drayden's house, while explaining to them how the Light Stone hadn't been in the Relic Castle, though Lenora had thought it would be there. The futuristic door slid open after checking Drayden's fingerprint. Yet the house was quite old-fashioned on the inside. There were large, full bookcases. "I'm sure you'll find what you're looking for here. But before you search, let me tell you more about Reshiram and Zekrom. You see, a long time ago, they were a single pokémon named Kyurem."

"Yeah," piped Iris, "and Kyurem worked with the twin heroes to unite Unova and bring about an era of peace and happiness!"

"Sadly, the twin heroes began to argue. The arguments between the older brother, who sought the truth, and the younger brother who sought ideals, became worse and worse. Arguments became fights, and fights became a war. Kyurem had a powerful mental connection with each of them; it was torn apart by their war. The minds of each of them tore the qualities they sought most from Kyurem, and so created two new dragons, Reshiram and Zekrom. The leftover remains of the near-dead Kyurem, wretched, weak, and without the qualities of either Reshiram or Zekrom, fled into the Black Mountains, never to be seen again. But the brothers had no eyes for what remained of their friend, only for their new creations."

Iris added: "Reshiram bonded with the older hero, trying to usher in a new and better world of truth; while Zekrom bonded with the younger hero, trying to usher in an ideal world of hope. Poor Kyurem was left without either, a terrible creature of lies and despair, but also very weak and on the edge of death."

Drayden nodded. "The battle between Reshiram and Zekrom destroyed Unova with fire and lightning. But the two were once the same, so neither could win. Eventually the heroes realised this and declared peace. And Unova was once again united, though damaged. But the heroes' new unity couldn't reunite Reshiram and Zekrom, as the damage that had been done could not be undone. The heroes worked together once again, but their brotherhood had been damaged forever, as had the dragon, for the heroes had left behind the traits neither of them valued in the remaining creature. Without Kyurem, Reshiram and Zekrom could not be one again."

"The heroes died of old age in the end. Reshiram and Zekrom were only parts of a dragon, they couldn't stay in existence without their connection to the heroes. So they died too. But not really; they became the Light and the Dark Stones. Just like Kyurem, they didn't really die, but they didn't really live either. They simply waited for another hero to make a new connection with."

"Since N bonded with Zekrom and resurrected it, he must the hero Zekrom has waited for. But I cannot say the same for the rest of Team Plasma. N has clearly been manipulated by these evil people. I believe you may be right to think only Reshiram can stop Zekrom now. But unfortunately, I don't know where the Light stone is. My best guess would be Dragonspiral Tower or Relic Castle, but of course we know it's in neither. There may be more information in my books, though. Iris, will you help Alder try to find it while I battle Black? Because that's the other reason you're here, isn't it?"

Black nodded and followed him. Boreas understood it all better now. "Did you know about all this?" he asked Octa.

"Most of it," boasted Octa.

"No, you didn't. Just like me, you knew some of it, but not nearly everything."

They bickered about it until they reached the Gym. "Our final Gym Leader, team," said Black. "Let's make this a great battle!"

"Looks like you'll finally get to see me battle a Gym Leader, love," said Boreas to Aqua.

Aqua simply winked and smiled at him at they entered the Gym. It was a large, wide open space inside with a thin bridge decorated with snake-like black and white dragons spanning the gap. Drayden stood on the other side of the Gym, across the bridge.

"Drayden!" called Black. "I have come to challenge you for the Legend Badge!"

"And I accept," Drayden's deep voice sounded. "As the city's mayor, I've given everything to development. But the newest things are not always the best. Trust is vitally important. Therefore, this will be a double battle, between our first two pokémon! Show me how your oldest friends trust you and each other!" He threw two pokéballs, releasing a Druddigon and a Haxorus.

Boreas and Octa walked forward onto the bridge, approaching their enemies. "Good luck, my dear fellow," said Octa as he drew his blade.

"You too, Octa," said Boreas. As the battle begun, he immediately fired an Ice Beam to the Haxorus' head, but it dropped flat on the ground, dodging the beam, and skittered rapidly towards Octa and Boreas on all fours. Boreas aimed Ice Beams at it to stop it in its track, but it dodged them with incredible agility. The dragon reached Boreas and pounced him, its massive tusks ready to strike. Boreas waved his paw rapidly and managed to hit his opponent with a Frost Concussion, disturbing its pounce. Still, the impact was immense, like a train hitting him. Boreas was launched into the air by the impact and nearly didn't land on the bridge.

Octa had his hands full with Druddigon as well, as it seemed to know Flamethrower. But Boreas had no time to help Octa, as Haxorus had already reached him and swung its tough, heavy tail at Boreas. It hit Boreas with near bone-breaking impact and knocked him down once again. Boreas Ice Beamed his opponent's belly, making it roar in pain, but that didn't stop its claws from leaving deep wounds in Boreas' side. Boreas realised that despite his type advantage, the battle wasn't going well. He tried to get up and fight his enemy, but then he was hit ferociously hard by the Haxorus' though tail, which nearly knocked him off the side of the bridge.

Boreas realised neither Ice Beam nor Frost Concussion was going to win him this battle, his opponent was just to fast and powerful for that. There was one move that could make him stand a chance, but he was scared of it. After all, the last time he had used it he had nearly killed himself. _I had only just evolved then, though. I'll be able to handle it this time._

His body cooled down to two-hundred degrees below zero and he unleashed that cold into the air, which immediately blasted through the Gym in a ferocious and ice-cold stormwind. The Gym's windows shattered and everything creaked with cold as the howling Blizzard blew through the Gym. It was raining; not with water but with liquid air that froze anything it touched. It was very cold even to Boreas, but it was nothing compared to what his opponents were going through. Haxorus was writhing in pain, its mouth and eyes frozen over already.

The same was happening to Druddigon, and unfortunately to Octa. Boreas tried to keep the worst of the storm away from his friend, but he could barely keep the Blizzard from going out of control again; there was no way he could control it enough to make it spare Octa. Fortunately, Boreas saw him disappear as Black returned him to his pokéball.

It was down to only Boreas now, but the Blizzard was getting harder and harder to control. It drained his energy to keep it under control. He saw his enemies, though hurt and freezing, weren't defeated yet, and he knew he would probably just collapse in exhaustion soon. He gave the Blizzard his final bit of energy, and fortunately saw Drayden return his pokémon to their pokéballs. He calmed the Blizzard down and everything went black as he collapsed.

–

Boreas was awoken by a potion being poured down his throat, giving him the energy to stand up again. He felt his energy rapidly return as Black thanked and congratulated him for the victory and he hugged Aqua. Boreas saw Octa look at him haughtily and smiled apologetically: "Sorry, Octa, I didn't realise I'd hit you too."

At that moment, Iris and Alder ran into the Gym. "Drayden, Drayden," Iris piped happily. "We know where it is! We've found the Light Stone!"

Boreas felt a sudden rush of terror as he realised she would tell them in a moment. This was all wrong; he had had no time at all to inform his friends! He realised if he didn't do something, it would be a disaster.

"Really?" asked Black. "That's great!"

Alder smiled. "Yes, the information we needed was indeed in the books."

Boreas cooled his body down once again so he could strike immediately. There was no time to feel bad about things not going as he had planned; he had to make sure Plasma didn't find out where the stone was.

"Yeah," chirped Iris. "It's actually in the-"

Having sneaked up behind the mole, Boreas put a paw to each side of that person's head and unleashed two ferocious pulses of cold into the brain, hopefully killing or at least severely handicapping his enemy.

–

AUTHOR'S NOTES: And that's eight! For a very long time in my plans, Black would lose this first battle against Drayden and not win his victorious rematch against Drayden until halfway into part nine. But with the war with Team Plasma going on, Gym Leader battles feel so boring and anticlimactic by comparison, which is why I just had them win on the first try instead.

This chapter is the end of part eight. It's been my favourite part, though it was quite hard to write. Next chapter will start part nine: The Road to Victory.

–

FEEDBACK: The Bulbafinatic: Q: BRILLIANT!

Octa the Superior! That's quite a change! I never thought he'd end up evolving. From an outside-ish-or-whatever perspective, it looked like he'd always be a Servine, with all that concept art...

A: For a long time, I wasn't sure whether he'd evolve. I like Servine better than Serperior, so he might've indeed stayed a Servine. But I figured the final evolution was a normal step in a pokémon's life, so I should really portray it. And of course, with things getting more dangerous, Black could really use the added power of a fully evolved Octa on his team.

Q: And now Aqua and Boreas can be together! That means that Black and White will be travelling with a Glaceon, Vaporeon, Flareon, Umbreon, and Espeon, making five Eeveelutions. That leaves a Leafeon and a Jolteon; will either ever show up in the story (not counting the cameo appearances of Boreas' family)?

A: Well, White won't be travelling with Black. And perhaps there'll be a Leafeon or a Jolteon, I can't spoil things yet.

Q: WHERE IS THE STONE? I can't imagine who could've taken it.

A: If you've played the game and paid attention during chapter 14, you might have an idea where the stone could be...

UNKNOWN: Q: Octa... evolved... The answer was in my face... I feel really dumb right now.

A: It was surprising to me how few people guessed it.

Q: Didn't mean to disappoint, it's just that the other main fics I read often use Deus Ex Machinas, like Brave New World the Pokemon superfic. That is partly why I like this story, because you don't rely on such mechanics.

A: Thanks, that is good to know. I always try to make sure solutions to things are either logical, or are hinted at before. Take Octa's evolution, for example: it has been hinted at since chapter 50, with Boreas teasing him about not having evolved yet, his father saying he expected him to evolve soon, his older brother already being a Serperior, etc.

Q: ...But I digress. They did a great job in defending themselves, with the exception of Simipour. Leave it up to Boreas Holmes with his faithful sidekick friend Octa Watson and his lovely lady!

A: Hehe, that's right.

Spells-of-stories: Q: I am feeling quite guilty. I haven't reviewed this story up till now; but I have fully enjoyed it! It is in my list of top fanfic, and I am going to say that you totally deserve the awards!

A: Well, I'm glad you're reviewing it now. And that you like it so much!

Q: This story has so many Pokemon that I love- the Snivy family is my 3rd favourite family; while the Eevee family is my 2nd. Can I suggest you to add members of the Shinx family? They are cool and cute and proud and strong and ... I have to stop my ramble, it is endless. Of course, it's perfectly fine if you don't want to; I will still enjoy the story! A friend for Octa and Boreas, perhaps?

A: The Eevee and Snivy families are among my favourites too. I never really liked the Shinx family, though I don't dislike them either. But I have good and bad news for you: there is a Luxray in the story at one point, but it's in a pretty minor role.

Q: My favourite character... It's Octa as our proud and noble gentlemon! You can't imagine how grateful you don't kill him! My Black starter is Snivy, and I have and will never regretted my choice, I guess you are also a fellow Snivy family lover too?

A: Yes, I like the Snivy family a lot too. I liked Snivy a lot ever since I first saw the smug little bugger in one of those previews two years ago.

Guardian54: Q: Well, this is one way of doing it... Do you have a scientific explanation for how Pokemon evolve? I started a Pokemon fic (then put it on hold) a while back and turned the whole Pokemon world into scientific stuff... can you take a look at it?

A: I see it as a form of metamorphosis, like insects and amphibians go through. Only faster, and the entire pokémon's body is rebuilt as a new one (hence explaining why the pokémon is in good as new condition after evolving in my story, even if they had bad wounds before evolving). Someone on deviantArt asked me when a pokémon can evolve and whether it's based only on the will to evolve, so let me copy-paste my answer:

Leaving aside evolutionary stones (which induce evolution immediately) and similar things like the Ice Rock:

The main thing that's needed for natural evolution is experience and age (like how in the games, a pokémon's level induces its evolution in many cases). A young, inexperienced pokémon will not evolve, no matter how much they want to. Once a certain level of experience is reached, a pokémon will evolve relatively effortlessly, unless they don't want to. (An example is Octa's first evolution, which happened during a battle that wasn't very important or dangerous or anything; because Octa was quite experienced at that point, evolving was easy for him. Another example would be Toxica's evolution to Gloom, just before taking the Leaf Stone to force herself to become Vileplume. She had long passed the point where she could evolve to Gloom, holding herself back because she knew what Octa thought of Glooms. So she didn't evolve. But when she did want to, it was as easy as flipping a light switch, basically)

But before the point is reached where evolution comes relatively easy, there is a period of time where a pokémon is experienced enough to evolve, but it requires effort. A pokémon really has to push itself to evolve if it's in this period. Octa was probably just around the beginning of this time; he could evolve, but it took him a titanic outpouring of will to do so; not even the prospect of his imminent death was enough to bring up that will. If he hadn't evolved and had survived the battle somehow, it would've slowly become easier to evolve for him, until he could finally do it with relatively low effort.

As for Capella: she may be old, but she was young for her species. She wasn't ready to become a Dragonair yet, it could've easily taken her another century without intensive training; and even if she was ready for it, it also takes a moment to collect your wits enough to evolve. Not much time, but the three or four seconds Capella had left after being hit by that Hyper Beam weren't enough. Octa, on the other hand, was dying quite slowly and had much more time.

So it's basically a combination of factors that make a pokémon evolve.

Q: I also have an explanation for the Joys and Jennys being identical but that'll be later in that fic...

A: My own hypothesis is that there was once a really great nurse named Joy, and when she retired she had herself cloned many times so she could still help people. But of course, it's not an issue in my story as the nurses are neither identical nor named Joy.

Q: As for why fighting is super-effective against steel, I think it's because of the same reason that HESH ammunition works against steel armour on tanks. Bits of the inside of the armour are blasted off by the conductance of the force and act as shrapnel on the inside of the vehicle, which is obviously very dangerous for a Pokemon if its armour is hit correctly (thus explaining the limited number of Fighting-type moves)

A: It's kind of silly that would be fighting type, though, considering that force would have to be delivered with hands and feet. I really think the reasons fighting is supereffective to steel are just that the designers think steel is just harder rock, and for making fighting stronger (which is not needed, in my opinion).

ganonfan117: It was sort of a misplaced cliffhanger. As soon as I read that Octa was mortally wounded, I knew you would have him evolve into his final form. I knew you wouldn't kill him off: you love him too much (Well, Pfft, don't we all?) to do it this early into the story.

A: Well, it seems to have worked for some people at least, and I would have hoped Capella's demise would have made it clear that major characters can die in this story. And she was very popular as well, and I liked her a lot.

Glaceon34: Q: 10.03 :did they play those game again? And no, I still don't know what those game are yet.

A: Yes, they did. And I get the feeling you're just trying to make a fool of me by acting deliberately oblivious, much like Selene often does to Lucius.

Q: you 's right, everybody will die sometimes so of course Octa will die... just after we finish the story ,right?

A: Perhaps.


	57. The Exposed Rook

Part Nine: The Road to Victory

Chapter Fifty-Seven: The Exposed Rook

Zeph roared in pain, drowning out wherever Iris said the Light Stone was, but didn't collapse. Boreas immediately Ice Beamed him to the face, realising the die had been cast and he had to defeat him right now, or he might escape, kill someone, or find out where the Light Stone was. But before he could do more, he was tackled away by the much greater strength and weight of Lucius.

"What the hell do you think you're doing, pup?" he yelled angrily as he pinned the smaller Glaceon down to the ground.

Boreas struggled to escape. "Let me go, you idiot! He'll hear it! He'll hear it, and Team Plasma will too!"

"Don't hurt him, Lucius!" pleaded Zeph. "He probably just hit his head too hard in the battle! I'm sure he didn't mean it!"

"Shut up, traitor!" Boreas snapped. "Don't try to act as if you're innocent!"

Boreas tried to aim another Ice Beam at Zeph, despite Lucius pressing him to the ground, but Octa got in the way. "Calm down, my dear fellow. Everything shall be well once we take you to the pokécenter."

"Listen to me!" Boreas rambled in panic. "Let me go! Let me go! This is important!"

While the rest of the team was focussed on Boreas, Zeph made eye contact with him for a single moment. In that single moment a malevolent grin that Boreas knew all too well flashed over his face. Boreas kept struggling and trying to escape from Lucius to attack Zeph again.

"Stop struggling, my love," said Aqua worriedly. "You're confused and attacked your brother just now."

"No, you don't understand! It's not my brother, it's Diego! It's Diego, you can't let him hear where the stone is!"

"My poor brother," said Zeph, "you don't know what you're saying. Don't worry, everything will be alright once you go to the pokécenter."

"Listen to me!" Boreas roared. "We have to stop him! He's the reason Team Plasma knows our every move!"

"My dear fellow," said Octa, "you can't expect us to believe Zephyrus is the mole without any evidence."

The humans too were staring at the situation, baffled. But then Drayden said: "I'm sorry, I didn't catch where the stone was with that sudden roar."

Boreas saw that confronting everyone with the evidence would take too long; it was up to him. Fortunately, Lucius wasn't exactly the brightest light on the team. He stopped struggling. "Alright, I guess you're right. Maybe I was too – Wh-what's _that_ doing up there?" he suddenly blurted out.

As Lucius looked up, Boreas kicked him as hard as he could, Ice Beamed his face, and threw the surprised and hurt Houndoom off him. He jumped up and tried to pounce Zeph, but was caught by a long, green, serpentine body, and wrapped up in its coils. "My dear fellow, stop this!" Octa said angrily.

Boreas struggled against Octa's coils. "Please, Octa!" he pleaded as he looked desperately into his friend's brown eyes. "I'm not mad, Zeph is Diego! Just make sure he doesn't hear it, I'll prove it to you when I have the time!"

Boreas must've somehow convinced Octa, as he nodded and turned to Zeph. "Zephyrus, methinks you should leave at this moment."

But then Iris said: "It's in the Nacrene Museum."

Zeph burst out into laughter. Not his normal, jovial laughter, but a cold, malevolent laugh in an entirely different voice than Zeph's. The laughing Flareon disappeared and revealed a large Zoroark standing in the same spot, with icy white spots on his hips – Boreas felt like an idiot for attacking where the illusion's head was instead of Diego's, which was obviously much higher up - and a small transmitter on his left ear. "Too late," laughed Diego.

Several curses and startled exclamations sounded. "What did you do to Zeph?" snarled Toxica. "You'd better not have hurt him!"

"Zeph's been dead for over a year," explained Boreas angrily as Octa let him go. "It was Diego all the time. I was going to warn you all before confronting him, but didn't have the time."

The pokémon all approached Diego threateningly. But he just kept laughing. "Oh, you don't have time to waste on me. You had better get to Nacrene, because Team Plasma will be there very soon."

"Damn," said Alder. "He's right, we can't waste time! We have to get to Nacrene right now! Come with me, all of you!"

"You're right," said Black. "C'mon, we have to run!"

"Yes," laughed Diego, "go on! Hurry, see what good it'll do you!"

But Boreas didn't want to let Diego go. "Go on," he said. "I'm staying here to deal with him. He'll pay for what he did."

"And I'm staying too," said Aqua, determinedly. "We'll take him down together."

"Good luck, my dear fellow!" said Octa as the others hurried out of the Gym. "I apologise for holding you back."

"Good luck to you too," said Boreas before turning to Diego.

"Tell me," smiled Diego, "what made you realise it was me?"

"The first time I had thoughts pointing to that direction was after the battle in Relic Castle," explained Boreas. "To be precise, I wondered why you were still missing two teeth and why your burns were only partially healed. Even if Team Plasma wouldn't have any healing technology, you could just visit a pokécenter. There's no way the people there would know you were with Team Plasma, after all. So after much thought, I realised it meant you had either been somewhere without pokécenters, or somewhere with a pokécenter, but where there were people who'd recognise you if you visited it. At first, I thought it'd be the first; maybe N had been in the wilderness since the war started? And that was another strange thing: you were in the castle, but there was no sign of N.

I wondered where you could've been in the month since our battle. And then I realised something funny about that battle: despite Zoroarks being famous for using their illusions, you never used any illusion. Even though it would've been useful at several points. You could hardly have forgotten you could make illusions, and it seemed unlikely you had lost the ability either. So you were deliberately foregoing their use. Why would you do that? At one point I realised it could be to prevent me from remembering you could make illusions. Perhaps so you could surprise me by using them as a secret weapon? That explanation wasn't very satisfying.

It wasn't until last night that I finally connected the dots. I realised Zeph lisped on occasion. Not often, but it is a bit odd, because he never used to lisp when he was young, and it's not like he had any injuries to his mouth either. That was the moment I realised you _were_ missing two teeth, something that could easily cause a lisp. At first, I dismissed the thought as ludicrous, even though I realised with your illusions creating an illusionary Zeph to "save" me from you so that you could then infiltrate the team would be easy, especially with me in a battered-up state. But Zeph couldn't be you, as illusions could only make you look like Zeph; you'd sound, smell, and feel different.

But of course, Zeph said he didn't like to be touched, and as far as I knew we had only touched him twice: once when I hugged him in the pokécenter, an event which you could've anticipated so you could hunch to the right height and wrap your ponytail around your neck to make it feel like a Flareon's fluffy collar; the other time was when Selene tried to land on your shoulder and collided with you. That time she thought she was still above you when she collided; of course, it could've been her clumsy flying, but it could also be because you were actually a Zoroark, and thus much taller than the Flareon you seemed.

The smell puzzled me for a bit. But I realised you mainly smell of smoke, and the nasty, stinging smell of it makes it hard to smell anything else; it masks whatever other scent there might be. I had a look in Black's pokédex: Zoroarks can learn Flamethrower. It's how you made that smoky smell, as well as how you used fire-attacks. Of course, not being a fire-type, your flames'd be rather underwhelming, so you just boosted their appearance with more illusions. Which explains why they felt less hot and provided less light than you'd expect.

Finally, there's the sound: dragging your feet would be a great way to prevent people from hearing your steps sounded like a heavy, two-legged creature. The voice could just be a good impersonation, helped by the fact that Zeph's voice would've changed a lot if he was still alive after all this time.

But then I remembered you had told me things I'd never told anyone, and was calmed down by that thought for a bit, as I realised it was all just a coincidence. Of course, it wasn't: when we fought Ryoku in Chargestone Cave, his Exeggutor read my mind. It copied my memories into your mind, didn't it? That's why your story fitted perfectly with my memories before the battle with Ryoku, but was slightly at edge with Octa's memories and my memories from after that day. For example, you mentioned seeing a gravestone with "Capella of the house of Draco" on it, but Capella's grave actually just said "Capella". It always was an odd coincidence you would happen to have evolved in exactly that save place.

My last argument against the truth was that you couldn't keep up the illusion while sleeping; surely someone would've seen a Zoroark sleep amongst us. But then I recalled your habit of disappearing most of the day and solved it: you lay awake at night to keep your illusion up and found a place to regain your lost sleep at day. But while we were travelling, you had to travel at day, of course, which meant you weren't getting any sleep. And indeed, you became very tired at these times. Finally, it also explains that an Audino managed to heal your cut throat and keep you alive, which would truly be a medical miracle if it really happened, and it explains why you sank into the bog like a much heavier creature. It explains why none of the enemies in Dragonspiral Tower really seemed to want to kill me: they wanted me to proceed so you could put on your one-man show. And those threats you issued to Giallo's pokémon in Relic Castle sound an awful lot like commands in hindsight."

It was silent as Boreas finished his explanation. The impressed looks Aqua and Diego gave him made him feel a lot better.

Diego slowly and sarcastically applauded Boreas. "Very good. I'm honestly impressed with your skills of reasoning. But it didn't matter in the end. If you had been a day faster, things would've gone differently."

"I just have one question: what was going on in Relic Castle? Why did Giallo retreat?"

"The plan at Relic Castle was originally just to get the Light Stone and leave before you even showed up. But when Giallo found it gone, he kept searching for it, and decided to question your trainer in case I had missed anything and someone had already retrieved the stone. When he realised Black didn't know either, he decided to get rid of him instead. I didn't want him to eliminate you before you'd found the Light Stone, but I could hardly tell him not to with you all watching, though I at least managed to mask orders not to kill you as threats. Still, I figured it wasn't so bad after a while. It would've been better to leave you alive so we could find the Light Stone too, but we were winning the war anyway, with or without Reshiram.

When I walked in on you and Octa dying, I figured I might as well kill you myself if you were going to die either way. Unfortunately, just before telling you who your brother really was and killing you, Octa attacked me. I tried to defeat him, but he was quite powerful after evolving, so I decided not to bother and used my illusion to make it appear Zeph chased me off. Then I walked to the other room with my Zeph illusion, and there I saw Giallo beat White's remaining pokémon. We had a nice talk together and decided together it was worth keeping you alive after all to get the Light Stone and make our victory even more crushing. So I reactivated my illusion and pretended to chase him away as he returned his pokémon to their pokéballs and fled. And seeing as the Nacrene museum is about to be attacked and the stone retrieved by Team Plasma, our decision was the right one."

With all spoken out like this, Boreas was going to attack Diego soon, and was on guard for an attack from the Zoroark as well. One side of him was feeling horribly betrayed and very sad, the wounds of his brother's death having been reopened. He was furious at Diego for it, and especially for trying to kill Aqua in the tower. Yet another side of Boreas couldn't help but be impressed with, almost admire, the cunning and skill it had required to fool everyone for nearly two months. "Not for you," said Boreas, "because now I'm going to kill you. For everything you've done, now including dishonouring the memory of my poor brother."

Aqua, who had been silently listening for a while, added: "And so am I. I thought you were my friend, but you betrayed me and tried to kill me. But at least it began to show me what bastards Team Plasma really are."

Diego laughed. "You are going to kill me? Neither of you has any clue of what you're getting into. Boreas, do you actually think I've ever used my full power against you? I didn't want to kill you at the tower, because I needed you to infiltrate your team. And I didn't use half my abilities to prevent you from guessing what was really going on when "Zeph" showed up. I could extinguish both of you like-"

Boreas struck with an Ice Beam to his face at that moment. "Shut up and fight us!"

Diego roared in pain and dropped prone on the bridge. Realising the fight had started, Aqua shot a powerful blast of water at the Zoroark while Boreas tried to Ice Beam him. But at that moment something bizarre happened to the light in the room. It was as if a brief explosion of darkness occurred right around Diego, making that part of the room go black for a moment while all the light bent and looked broken, like a shattered wall of glass. The two beams were harmlessly deflected by the sudden pulse of darkness.

The light returned to normal, but Diego was gone. Boreas and Aqua stammered in surprise and looked everywhere to find him, but the Gym was empty, aside from the two Eevees. "M-maybe he used an illusion to make himself invisible?" whispered Boreas.

"I don't think that's possible... But he _could_ have used it to make himself look like any object here. Try to find anything out of place."

But there weren't many objects in the Gym, and none of them seemed out of place to Boreas. Cautiously, they moved onto the bridge to see if they could find Diego from there. Suddenly Boreas realised Diego was under them, hanging from the underside of the bridge. "Look o-"

A powerful impact knocked the words out of Boreas' mouth and smote him to the ground, knocking him off the side of the bridge. He tried to hold on to it, but he fell off and plummeted down into the black depths screaming. Just when he expected a crushing impact, he landed on thick cushions, only his pride wounded. He could see the beams where Diego had to have been holding himself on the underside of the bridge, and heard sounds of battle on the upper side of the bridge. He raced to the stairs and up them, his heart breaking a bit every time he heard a yelp of pain from Aqua.

As he reached the top of the stairs, it was clear the battle on the bridge wasn't going well for Aqua. She was bruised and battered up, while Diego was mostly unharmed. Boreas changed that as he hit Diego in the loins with an Ice Beam. He doubled over in pain, and Aqua used that moment to Scald him, hitting him with a blast of the boiling water. Boreas continued his Ice Beam, hitting the Zoroark several times as Aqua kept Scalding him. Suddenly Diego got up, took a massive jump over Aqua, and ran at Boreas. He was hit by horribly painful boiling hot water as he Ice Beamed their enemy, who was now between him and Aqua.

The Zoroark disappeared just before reaching Boreas, and after a moment's disorientation Boreas understood it had been an illusion used by the real Diego to stop the Eevees from attacking him, so he could attack Aqua. Before Boreas could do anything about it, Diego had given Aqua a powerful kick that sent her flying into the wall as she crashed down into the pit. Boreas heard her groan down there, so at least she was still alive.

"You'll pay for that, Diego!" he roared furiously. "I'm going to kill you for it."

"You keep saying that," Diego said with a smile that clearly hid his pain. "But by now, you've already got three to five different things you swore to kill me for. There's the nice view I gave you at the Ferris wheel, getting your sweet little darling to join the winning side, my failed attempt to end her life at the tower, my impersonation of your poor late brother, and now this. Yet you can only kill me once, and even that is unlikely to succeed."

"Then I'll have to enjoy that one time all the more!" roared Boreas as he tried to hit Diego's loins with an Ice Beam once again. But, with a single wave of his paw, a flash of darkness consumed the Ice Beam, harmlessly parrying it. Diego breathed a beam of fire that Boreas couldn't dodge on the thin bridge. Boreas screamed in agony as the fire washed over him, so terribly hot, and left his fur smouldering. He quickly rolled over the ground to extinguish it, and stood face-to-face with his brother. No, not his brother: Diego.

"Diego! I won't let you wear my brother's face like a mask any more, you bastard!"

"But it's not your brother's face. He never did evolve to a Flareon. This is your brother's face." The Flareon was gone, and now there stood Zeph as Boreas remembered the real one; a fluffy little Eevee-cub. "So if you don't want me to look like this, make me."

"I will," said Boreas determinedly. He tried not to show it to Diego, but even though he knew the Zeph he had known for the past two months - bizarrely enough about as long as he had ever known the real Zeph - was really Diego, he had still got quite attached to him before he realised the truth. Now it felt almost like Zeph had died all over again, and Diego using his illusions to look like him only made the grief feel worse. Diego had to pay for it. Boreas unleashed all the cold he could make from his body, turning the Gym's atmosphere into a howling Blizzard for the second time that day.

From what little he could see of Diego across the Blizzard, he was really in pain this time. He dropped the illusion almost instantly. The water Aqua had soaked him with froze in his fur, as did the saliva in his mouth and the moisture on his eyes. Much though Boreas enjoyed this, Blizzard was incredibly exhausting. A marathon was like picking up a pen by comparison. And he couldn't let himself black out this time, not with Diego fighting him. He had to end the attack.

As he stopped the Blizzard, he wanted to attack Diego with other moves, but all the energy had been drained from his body. He couldn't even remain standing as the world began spinning. But he had to stay awake... He tried to focus on his paw, which was in front of his face, and manage to remain conscious. He felt Diego's claw around his neck and was lifted up by it. He looked in an evil, but half-frozen face.

"That was a nice move, Boreas. Let me counter that:" He opened his mouth and spit a ray of fire right in Boreas' face. Boreas screamed and struggled, but the fire kept hitting his face. Boreas thought he was going to die of pain when Diego dropped him and stopped spitting the fire into his face. But what was left of his fur kept smouldering, at least until Diego stamped out the fire.

"It's been fun fighting you again," said Diego as Boreas couldn't fight him any more in agony, "but I think I will have mercy on you both today. If you are wise, you'll leave your trainer and go somewhere I will never see you again, because I won't be so nice next time."

"I'm not letting you get away!" yelled Aqua furiously as she got into Diego's way. "Not after what you did to Boreas!"

"Sorry, gorgeous, but I'm leaving, whether you want it or not," said Diego. Suddenly four illusionary Diegos appeared, all running off in different directions. Aqua tried to stop them, but evidently failed as most of the Diegos managed to reach the exit, one of them the real one. Aqua didn't pursue them, but instead returned to Boreas. "I'm sorry I let him get away, dearest, but I've got to get you to the pokécenter."

The cool, pleasant water of an Aqua Ring enveloped Boreas and soothed his wounds. "Thank you..." said Boreas, though the water oddly deformed his voice, though he was somehow able to breathe it.

The Aqua Ring ended after a while, when Boreas' pain was soothed greatly. "That feels much better. I suppose it doesn't look good?"

Aqua shrugged. "It could be much worse. You've lost a lot of fur, but the skin underneath doesn't look too bad. You'll be fine once we get to the pokécenter."

Boreas cautiously managed to get up and began walking to the pokécenter with Aqua.

"I just wish we had killed Diego..." she said Aqua sadly. "He should've paid for all he did to us."

Boreas nodded. "I wish we'd killed him too. But at least he killed neither of us. We'll get another chance."

"And you managed to find out about that bastard. I never suspected it; it was amazing how cleverly you found him out."

Boreas smiled nervously at the compliment. "Thanks, but it really wasn't that amazing. It was practically coincidence that I realised what Zeph's lisp meant."

"Coincidence or not, it was very smart of you. You sounded so brilliant when you explained it all. It was very sexy."

Boreas felt as if he was blushing, but it probably wasn't visible with his reddened skin. "Thanks. It didn't have much effect in the end, though. I hope after we go to the pokécenter I can still get to Nacrene on time..."

–

Diego was annoyed he hadn't killed Boreas. He could've easily done it. When he held the Glaceon by his throat, Diego should've kept going with his Flamethrower. He should have burned his fur off, incinerated his skin and melted his eyes, he should've kept blazing until flesh turned to ashes and a dangerous enemy of Team Plasma was dead. It had been his plan, but something had held him back. Some idiotic part of him hadn't wanted to kill Boreas. So he had burned Boreas' face only briefly before throwing him aside and escaping. The stupid side of him that didn't want to kill Boreas actually felt some bizarre comradeship with the Glaceon. Apparently two months of pretending to be his brother had somehow made Diego feel bad about killing Boreas. There were the memories too: Diego had all Boreas' earliest memories in his head now, as well as some relevant later ones, and it made him feel some understanding for Boreas, which he should've drowned out.

Diego tried to get his mind off his failure by thinking about the fact that he was about to be reunited with N. He was looking forward to seeing N again by a surprising amount. It was strange to think he had actually gotten attached to the boy, who was after all no more than a tool in the plan. Of course, it was easy to get attached to someone after spending most of your life with him. And N was Ghetsis' son, despite everything else, so it was only to be expected he would have inherited some of the qualities that made Diego view Ghetsis as his friend. Still, such attachment could be dangerous. Diego knew what his task would be if N ever decided to betray Team Plasma, and it would not be an easy task if the friendship he pretended to feel for N actually became a real thing.

Diego felt very annoyed by idiotic feelings like these. He would be useless to Team Plasma if he didn't know who his friends were. Neither Boreas nor N was his friend; Ghetsis was! Ghetsis had saved him as a young Zorua cub and raised him with friendship, Ghetsis had promised him power and freedom, Ghetsis had made him an important part of Team Plasma, Ghetsis had even placed him in charge of the most critical part of the plan, N's education. Diego would have been dead for years without Ghetsis. To even think about betraying his plans or feeling friendly to an enemy of the Sage was treason. He had to extinguish these unneeded feelings; they would only interfere. They were just illusions anyway, brought on by other people's memories in his head and spending a lot of time with them. One of them was his enemy, the other no more than a brainwashed tool.

But then he saw N at the rendezvous point, talking to his other pokémon, and was overwhelmed with happiness at seeing his friend again. He ran to them, only managing to restrain himself at the final moment as he entered the small circle of pokémon and N saw him.

"Hello, N," he said with a happy smile.

"Diego!" N greeted him happily. "Ghetsis said you'd be back from your mission soon! I'm so happy to see you!" N gave Diego a hug, surprising the Zoroark for a moment, before he threw his arms around N's shoulders as well.

"I'm happy to see you too, N," he said truthfully.

–

AUTHOR'S NOTES: Wow, the speculation for last chapter was amazing. I've had speculation before, but never to this level. My congratulations go to all those who managed to guess rightly, of course, but especially to KidChimera00, who didn't just manage to deduce correctly that Zeph was Diego and knew about Boreas' early life with help of a psychic type, but did so after chapter 54 already! Very well done. Aside from Zeph, common speculation targets seem to have been Selene, Aqua, and Lucius (more or less in that order).

I think it's time I explained how the Diego-Zeph plot came to be, because it's quite an interesting story. It began all the way back in chapter 2, to be precise. After writing the first part, I had already started to like Zeph as a character, and really considered having him survive and join Black's team too. At that point I had barely planned anything ahead, so I could easily have done it. There were two reasons I didn't: First of all I was already planning to have Boreas and Octa become best friends, and I realised having Zeph along would probably mean there would automatically be much more focus on Boreas' relationship with his brother than with Octa. It would probably have led to Octa being a much less major character and less close of a friend to Boreas than he ended up. Secondly, I realised there would be very little emotional impact to the death of Boreas' family if the only characters who died were characters that didn't actually appear at all (aside from Boreas' mother, who got one single line). Zeph, on the other hand, featured quite prominently in the chapter and we already knew him a bit.

That said, I felt very sorry for Zeph, and wanted to get him back into the story. Before chapter 3 was finished, I had found a way, which is pretty much exactly the made-up story Diego-Zeph told in chapter 51, only it would've been real. I considered it a good compromise: Boreas would get to spend much of the story, especially the early parts, with Octa, who would be the person he is closest to, and Zeph's seeming death also had some emotional impact, yet I'd eventually get to write him back in again and I hadn't actually killed him off. The place were he would've returned was the exact same as the one where he eventually came back.

I also thought it would be nice if instead of a Jolteon, I'd have him be a Flareon. I like Flareon a lot, plus I figured a pokémon evolving into something it doesn't want to evolve in would be an interesting thing to explore.

But as I went on, more characters were added and Zeph went from a character who I liked a lot in my mind to be pushed back by others. By the time I reached part six, I didn't feel any remorse or regret over killing him off any more, and by then I started to think that having Zeph just return from the death would greatly cheapen death in my story, and risk people expecting Capella (whose death was of course pretty much the defining thing about part six) to come back as well. I felt less good about it, and all over part six and seven I considered getting a new character as the sixth member of the team. For a long time, I considered having Aurora Invicta join the team. Until chapter 46 or 47, I was in doubt between having Zeph return and having Aurora as the sixth part member.

Then, somewhere around new year, I had the idea of Zeph actually being Diego in illusion disguise. And immediately dismissed it as stupid. But I liked it more and more as I thought about it, and started thinking of ways to solve problems like the different voices, smells, weights, what would happen to the illusion while sleeping, etc. And I really liked it. It would allow me to write some more Zeph, have Diego do more than just being an evil bastard who occasionally beats Boreas up, and allow Boreas to show off his intellect by connecting all the clues. I decided, of course, I was going to play it fair and put each one of those clues into the text as well, so observant readers could solve it as well.

Originally, the unmasking of Diego was supposed to be a surprise to all but the most observant readers. I wasn't planning on mentioning there was a mole in the team, and have chapter 56 end with Boreas seemingly randomly attacking his brother with deadly intent, causing many a reader to exclaim "What the hell, Boreas?" before chapter 57 showed why he did it. Unfortunately, I mentioned the fact that there was probably a mole several times, and it got people's minds on that track. While proofreading chapter 56, I realised if I just stated Boreas attacked Zeph at the ending, almost everyone would realise it was because Boreas realised Zeph was the mole, instead of having almost everyone be surprised. So I rewrote the chapter to obscure the identity of the attacked person, and with success, it seems, as it caused much speculation, especially on deviantArt.

During the chapters before 55, where practically no-one knew about Zeph's real identity except me, I had a couple of incredibly funny reviews, like ones that said they wanted to give Zeph a hug... I hope you don't mind hugging Diego. I also had quite a lot of comments about Zeph's occasional lisping, all apparently thinking they were typos.

Incidentally, I don't know if you remember, but back in part seven someone asked me who the sixth member of the team would be, and I answered: "Someone we've first met in part one, yet someone who you wouldn't expect to join the team, and with good reason." This statement was deliberately constructed to seem to point to Aqua (met in chapter 1, you wouldn't expect her to join because she doesn't like humans and was on Team Plasma's side), then when Zeph shows up seem to point to him (met in chapter 2, you wouldn't expect him to join because he's dead), while it actually points to Diego (met in chapter 4, you wouldn't expect him to join because he's with Team Plasma and bloody evil).

FEEDBACK: Arcane1ManaX: Q: "Ftinking bog, I hope the humans will drain it and build an actual road here!"]

*stinking

A: Nope. "Ftinking" is what he actually said. The S is a though letter to pronounce when you miss two teeth.

Q: Where did the story about Kyurem come from? I haven't found that story in-game. Wherever it came from, it's pretty cool.

A: It's partially my own ideas, partially based on in-game stuff, and partially based on speculation.

The Bulbafinatic: Q: Excellent. I have an idea of who the mole is, but that idea is so saddening that I'm not sure I can say it.

A: Well, then I hope your idea wasn't Zeph, if that saddens you so much.

ganonfan117: Q: THAT is a cliffy! I'm totally on edge now! I can't wait for the next chapter so I can find out who it was! And I also can't wait for Boreas to master blizzard! Obviously, he's gotten far more powerfull, bt he still hasn't mastered it yet.

A: Glad you like it. Boreas actually has mastered Blizzard, more or less. IT's just a very exhausting move, given its power.

Q: Also, please tell me you have decided to use Mirror Coat later on "in a fairly epic scene".

A: I'm still not sure; so we'll see.

Q: Oh, and I meant in my Ch 55 Review that it just seemed too early to kill him off, not that you wouldn't. You're a fairly evil author, and I don't doubt your capacity to end one of your favorite character's life, but your also a fairly poetic author, and I think that if you wanted to kill off one of your mains, you would do so at a time that seems poetic or logical. that is all.

A: Considering we're nearing the end, it seems like quite a good place to kill a main character off to me, actually. What better way to show things are really getting dangerous than to kill of one of the main characters? I could've killed Octa there (and considered it too), if I didn't have better plans.

TheFluffyGlaceon: Q: OK, know what, 3 things.

1:This is my FAVORITE story EVER, of all time, yes.

A: Great, thanks!

Q: 3:do u like my name, TheFluffyGlaceon, it was inspired by my favorite pokemon, glaceon, AND BORRASE! (sorry if i spelled that wrong)

A: Yes, I quite like it. Though I do wonder how it's possible to misspell a name which you've been reading about ten times a chapter for 56 chapters.

Sonosublime: Q: Pretty cool chapter. Your writing is excellent as always, and Zeph is always good for a laugh. I hope he isn't the mole.

A: Well, technically he wasn't, as he's been dead for sixteen months.

Q: One thing that stuck out to me is that Black, Alder AND Drayden left a high-ranking enemy commander to run around. Why wouldn't they follow Ryoku and try to capture him when there are less civilians around?

A: You're right, I didn't quite handle that properly.

Q: Anyway, keep up the good work, and I'm looking forward to the battle with the dark-type specialist (since its my favourite type).

A: It's one of my favourite types as well. And of course, you're in luck, as one of the Elite Four in Black and White is a dark-type specialist. So expect a big battle in part ten.

Spells-of-stories: Q: Another great chapter! And another cliffhanger as well... *sigh* You are just like me with the evil cliffhanger, but yours are better, of course!

A: Thanks. I've been realising that the cliffhangers tend to result in more people commenting, as well as more excitement for the next chapter, so I've been employing them a bit more.

Q: You wrote the chapter of the battle against Drayden well, and you remind me how awful it is to battle the dragons! That gym forced nearly every Pokemon of mine fainted before I won in Pokemon Black!

A: Dragon can be a horrid type to fight against. I didn't find Drayden that though, but Clair (and especially her Kingdra from hell) always give me the greatest trouble in (Soul)Silver.

Q: It is great to hear that a Luxray is going to appear! I don't mind if it only has a minor role, but can he/ she be a good guy or girl? Please?

A: Yes: it will be on Elesa's team.

Invader Ang: Q: ... is it Selene? o3o I bet it is. She's way too kooky to be legit.

A: As Selene herself said in chapter 26, quoting Salvador Dalí: "The difference between a crazy person and myself is that I'm not crazy."

Q: Anyway, I've been following this story since probably chapter thirty-five but never reviewed- but I finally decided to come out of hiding.

A: Thanks for that, I always appreciate comments.

Q: Absolutely excellent work! I've read a few interesting Pokemon fanfics, but this one BY FAR has the most in-depth plot, most well-structured dialogue, and most incredibly unique, memorable characters. And your use of descriptive imagery makes me feel like I'm in the story! Especially in the battle scenes. I could almost see and feel the huge flames engulfing Boreas and his friends in Chapter 11... ;~; *wipes away a tear of joy*

A: Great to hear you enjoy it so much.

Q: KEEP ON WRITING, GURL... or guy :P

A: Guy.

TrueBolt: Q: I keep picturing Octa as a Servine dispite myself

A: It's taking some getting used to for me as well.

Q: I am deeply sorrowed that Seleen gets a dose of Sheer Cold at the end there. (Is Sheer Cold the tecnical name of the move that Boreas uses on her head? Maybe, maybe not?) Actualy I'me just guesing that i'ts Seleen, but there isn't anyone else who makes sence.

A: The move he was using was a form of his Frost Concussion. And of course, it wasn't Selene who got a dose of it, but you know that by now.


	58. The Return

Chapter Fifty-Eight: The Return

Octa awaited the train's arrival in Nacrene anxiously. The journey from Opelucid had taken a whole night, so he feared Team Plasma could already have taken the Light Stone and left by now. The fact that Opelucid was located on the other side of the continent from Nacrene was never more unfortunate. If only there was more than a single aeroport in Unova, they might've arrived earlier. However, it was too late to change the past now, all they could do was hope their arrival in Nacrene was not too late.

"Octa?" asked a rather commonly-accented and high-pitched, yet somehow pleasant voice. "What d'you think'll 'appen if we're too late?"

Octa turned to the truly charming Vileplume sitting next to him and endeavoured to reassure her. "Do not fear, my darling. We shan't be late, for we heard the news at the same moment as Plasma did. Neither side had a head-start."

Lucius, who was seated opposite them with Selene, scoffed. "Yeah," he said in his hideous Brooklyn accent that was as annoying as a shrieking infant to Octa's ears, "but they probably didn't have to travel all through Unova."

"If they did arrive before us," said Octa with annoyance, "I'm sure Lenora can hold them off for a while. She did not become Gym Leader without reason, and given that Alder alerted the other Gym Leaders she may not be alone either."

"But what d'you think'll happen if they get their grubby mitts on the stone anyway?" asked Toxica anxiously.

Octa sighed. "Methinks 'twould truly be a catastrophe. Whether or not N can reawaken Reshiram as well as Zekrom, we would lose this chance to defeat them. Unfortunately, if Team Plasma commands both legendary dragons, I fear their victory might be very difficult to avert. Valorous souls, my own noble family first among them, would continue to battle Plasma until the bitter end, but even the house of Equinox and all the Gym Leaders together could not achieve victory against such an overwhelming opponent, particularly because the populace would likely turn against them completely with both dragons in Plasma's hands. I fear Plasma would claim victory and sever the relationships between humans and pokémon..."

Everyone was silent for a while, thinking about this, and then Selene croaked: "What happens next?"

Octa had to think about this. "A surprisingly lucid and good question, considering its source. 'Tis difficult to predict this... It highly depends on the agenda of the Seven Sages. I highly suspect N is a mere figure-head; they are the true power behind Team Plasma. I expect they would keep N on his throne and meanwhile rule Unova for themselves, submerging the land in darkness and tyranny. However, 'twould be a benevolent tyranny, and a darkness that would seem like light to most, for they presumably know the dangers of antagonising their subjects..."

It was silent for a while, then Selene spoke: "But that wouldn't be the end of it. It couldn't! Pokémon and humans would still make friendships... Some human would rescue some pokémon like Black did to Boreas, or the other way around, and they would become friends. Someone would rediscover the joy of being friends with humans again, and they'd be friends in secret, despite the opposition to such a friendship. And that would happen all over the place. And meanwhile, the power-hungry Sages, or their successors, would eventually stop getting along so well and try to take all power for themselves, creating instability. The new trainers and their pokémon would eventually get together, and resist. They would spread their friendship and chaos among other people, who would sometimes join them, and there would be more and more resistance to the Sages... Eventually that resistance will grow into a rebellion, which will one day nurture itself into a revolution... Which will be victorious. Because the darkness is just a passing thing, and there will be a Sunrise after every night..." At that moment she saw the astonished look everyone was giving her and smiled. "A little man who crawled out of my left eye told me that. I think he knew what he was talking about, he seemed quite sensible."

Octa had tried to get an grip on the exact extent of Selene's sanity before, but she seemed to always make sure it was impossible. The fact that she wasn't as crazy as she appeared had of course been quite obvious to him for a while. But exactly what part of her behaviour was true insanity and what part was simply an obfuscating act she liked to play he had never been certain. "Selene..." he said.

At that moment, the train had arrived in Nacrene. There was no more time to talk as they, Black, Iris, Drayden, Alder, and their pokémon rushed to the museum. But after a few minutes, Octa noticed Toxica and Lucius were the only other members of Black's team still running along with them: Selene had flown into someone's beautiful, ornate garden and was sitting amidst a display of pale stones. "Selene!" called Octa. "You cannot linger, do follow us!"

"But-" began Selene as Octa fixed her with a stare. "Oh, alright... But I'm taking Edward with me, I really feel like I've got to know him well in my time in the garden." She flew after them, but with a sparkly white stone the size of a human fist in her claws.

"Put that back, Selene," lectured Octa, "you should not steal!"

"But Edward is my friend," complained Selene as she flew on, following the rest, "he says he is at least, and I believe him. I like him too, look how at how he sparkles in the Sun."

"That only makes it worse! That was most likely an expensive stone. I do not have time to deal with this right now, but believe me when I tell you I shall make you put it back to whence you stole it from after the battle."

"But why would you want to separate Edward and me, we're so close... We go way back, nearly three minutes..."

But Octa had no time to respond, for at that moment heard the screams and saw the clouds of smoke and a little shape that looked like a human in robes riding a Charizard. Octa cursed: Sage Rood had arrived before them. Octa moved forward as fast as he could, lamenting the loss of his legs which made him slower.

They arrived at the Gym's square, where Lenora and a few trainers were battling Sage Rood's fire-types together, clearly losing.

"We can easily defeat him together!" said Alder as their pokémon charged into battle with Rood's pokémon. While fire was anathema to Octa, and he even secretly had to admit to himself he feared it, the company of Alder's powerful pokémon, as well as the dragon types of Iris and Drayden, strengthened his heart. He drew his blade charging, ducked under a ray of fire aimed for his head, and saluted the Sage's Ninetales before entering into combat with her.

The battle seemed to be almost easy for a while, as they were outnumbering the opponent so vastly. But just as Octa was expecting victory to be near, a barrage of rocks and stones hit them, a small one hitting Octa on the head and striking him down before his opponent, bleeding from his head. He lay before her, wounded and attempting to get up before she incinerated him, when Alder's Boufallant launched her away with a massive Head Smash. "Thank you," said Octa gladly, but his heart sank as he saw a second Sage, wearing brown robes and riding an Archeops, fly over as his rock-type pokémon joined the fight.

"You may outnumber ush now," boasted Rood as the battle now went a lot better for him, "but the odder five Shagesh are heading thish way ash well! You may defeat one or two of ush, but all the trainersh of Unova amasshed couldn't defeat the sheven of ush together!" His Charizard swooped down and breathed incinerating fire over Lenora's pokémon.

"Ja, and did we mention the dozens of grunts on their way too?" laughed Bronius as Octa dodged under a massive hit of his Aggron that hit Iris' Fraxure and left it crushed on the ground, its tusks broken off. "Give us the stone now and surrender. Your pokémon will be liberated and you captured, but I promise you will live. We treat our prisoners well."

Black picked up one of the rocks the attacks of Bronius' pokémon had scattered and threw it at the flying Bronius, hitting him on the foot and causing him to yelp in pain. "Yes, I saw how well you treat your prisoners when you "liberated" my pokémon, you hypocritical git!"

Then a wave of water from the river washed over the battlefield, and Octa was reminded of the last time they had battled here, when they had met Capella, and instinctively felt his heart jump. He nearly expected to see his old friend, somehow revived, at the river, but there was no such pleasant surprise: six powerful water-types carrying Sage Gorm had arrived instead, and the water quickly went from a small wave to a powerful current sweeping through their ranks as Gorm's pokémon too joined the battle.

"I wonder, lads," said the Scotsman to the other Sages. "How many of us d'ye think are needed for them to see they're doomed?"

Octa realised they were beginning to lose this. Alder could handle a Sage, and two of Black, Drayden, and Iris probably could too, but Black's team missed a valued member, and apparently more Sages were on their way. Grunts, running in from the streets, began to join the battle too, yet they were also followed by a few brave local trainers,who saw the attack and wished to protect their Gym and Museum from it.

Suddenly, Ghetsis' voice sounded over the battlefield, amplified by unknown source. "Gentlemen... Ladies... Genderless pokémon... Why do you fight us?"

Octa could not help but reply. "You attempt to shatter friendships forever and you inquire why we fight you?"

"Trainers, you claim to be your pokémon's friends, yet keep them captive and force them to fight for you even now. Pokémon, you claim to be your trainer's friends, yet you let them continue this fight, probably leading to their deaths. How can you continue this?"

"Enough! If you want to win, you're going to have to do it the hard way, we shall never surrender!"

–

Boreas anxiously awaited the train's arrival in Nimbasa after a rough night of sleep in the noisy, shaking, and above all, too warm train. Boreas quite liked trains, as far as human transportation methods went, but they were no place to sleep. Even aside from the heat, noise, and shakiness, it was tough to sleep for Boreas for three reasons: outside the window, all kinds of places he had never been to came by. Being naturally curious and always wanting to see new places was a great way to stay entertained in a train at day, but made it even harder to get to sleep at night, as Boreas constantly wanted to look out the window and see the nightly world pass by instead of sleep.

The second reason was that he was worried about Aqua. She hadn't wanted to accompany him, pointing out that she wasn't on either side and didn't want to fight. But Boreas wasn't at all sure Opelucid was safe, especially with Diego there. Aqua could take care of herself, Boreas knew that, but with Diego near, no-one was safe. They had found that out after the battle, when they were walking from the pokécenter to the station. Diego had appeared out of thin air, clearly an illusion but it meant the real one had to have been very nearby, probably disguised as one of the humans with another illusion. "Team Plasma has prepared for this war for more than twenty years," his voice had sounded. "Trainers weren't even aware of our existence two years ago. What chance do you think you have?" If Diego could sneak up on them like that, he could do it again... Possibly while she was alone... A terrifying thought to Boreas.

If only he had unmasked Diego sooner... Everyone thought it was great he had unmasked the Zoroark, but it had still taken him two months. How could he have been so stupid to trust Zeph in the first place? He was fighting an enemy with illusionary powers, and all of a sudden, here was his long-dead brother, come back from the death to rescue him! He was such an idiot never to have suspected the truth before.

And finally, there was the thought of what might await him in Nacrene. Octa had nearly died last time they had fought Team Plasma. The thought of finding one of his friends, especially Octa, dead or dying in Nacrene was terrifying, especially since everyone was now fully evolved, so there were no more second chances if someone was near death. But it wasn't just that that worried him about the battle: Diego's sudden remark had made Boreas realise how badly at a disadvantage they were. If Team Plasma also got their hands on Reshiram, they had won, it was as simple as that.

The landscape outside turned from forest to city as they entered Nacrene, the train slowly breaking to a stop at the station. Boreas darted out and ran to the Gym, a pillar of smoke ahead heightening his fear. When he reached the Gym, pandemonium ruled. The museum was burning with blazing flames. Dead and wounded pokémon and humans from both sides lay around it. A destroyed fire truck lay amongst the wide destruction. A few trainers Boreas didn't know were fighting Team Plasma grunts amidst the carnage. He looked around anxiously to see if he saw a green snake or any of his other friends among the fallen, when he heard sounds of battle still come from inside the burning museum.

Inside, pandemonium ruled. The wall between the main hall and the library had collapsed, showing the large library where they had won Lenora's Basic Badge thirteen months ago. Most of the bookcases were knocked over or burning, the books scattered and ablaze in the battle, and the expositions in the main hall were destroyed or on fire as well. Boreas felt miserable seeing the skeleton of Capella's ancestor had collapsed and was now scattered on the floor, many of the bones broken. But he had no time to let the horror of either the destruction of the skeleton or any of the other beautiful and ancient displays or the library get to him, as battle raged in the destroyed museum. Powerful attacks blasted back and forth in the raging inferno of flames. Most of the combatants were taking cover behind things during the battle, so Boreas couldn't see whether his friends were alright, nor where the Light Stone was; it was not on its display.

Boreas saw a sharp blue light in the corner of his eye and dived for cover behind a large piece of rubble that had fallen out of the roof; just in time, as a lightning bolt struck the entrance where he had stood. He took a quick look above his cover and saw the head of an Eelektross. He tried to fire an Ice Beam at it, but immediately had to duck for another bolt of electricity. He made several more attempts to attack the Eelektross, but stood no chance as other enemy pokémon had also noticed he was there, so lightning bolts, rays of acid and poison, blasts of gravel, and flamethrowers would also try to hit him if he even showed himself.

"Pup, here!" He heard Lucius snap. Looking in the direction, he saw Lucius and Selene lie behind the destroyed fossil of the Kabutops, which had been broken into several large stony pieces. It was clear neither of them could move; they had clearly broken their legs and wings. But compared to the others there, they had been lucky: the Haxorus Boreas and Octa had fought a day earlier lay dead near them, as did a Sawsbuck as well. Lucius was clearly beckoning Boreas, but there were at least five metres of open space between them. Yet he seemed so urgent Boreas decided to try crossing it.

To stand a slightly larger chance of not being killed the moment he got out of cover, he waited until someone from their side attacked the enemy, then took a step back and showed almost the entire length of his tail on the side opposite of where he was going to, as a distraction so when he sprinted out of his hiding place a moment later they attacked the wrong side of his cover. He felt a searing pain in his tail, but ran with all the speed he could manage, making huge, jumping steps with all four paws.

After a single large step, attacks zoomed around him and ahead. He pressed himself very close to the ground with the next, hearing attacks flash by just above his head and even feeling something go through his hair. He took a big jump with his third step, jumping over a disgusting blast of acid, while sending out a pulse of cold to deflect anything else, before landing safely behind the fossil. He quickly frosted his tail to extinguish the fire on it and turned his attention to Lucius. "Yes? How is Octa? And Toxica?"

Lucius spoke grimly. "Your boyfriend was still in one piece last time I saw him, as was Toxica. But Drayden is dead, as are several pokémon. But that's not important: look what the crazy chicken has in her claws!"

Selene was curled up in a little black feathery ball, her wings around herself, but in her claws she was clutching a white stone with vigour while whispering something. "The Light Stone?" Boreas asked in surprise.

Lucius nodded. "You can walk, pup, get it outta here now!" he took the stone from Selene.

The Honchkrow protested weakly, but then looked at Boreas."Get him out of here, Boreas, please," she said emphatically. "It's imperative you get him out."

Boreas nodded and took the stone, taking it in his mouth to make sure he could still run. "Cawn woo gife be a diftracfion?" he asked Lucius.

"Hmpf, I can try," grumbled Lucius, and he stuck his one good paw up, above the cover. Boreas ran for it immediately, taking a huge jump as he ran for the exit and his life. He made a pulse of cold to try and deflect the attacks, but then an incredible impact knocked him out of the air as he was hit by a flying rock near his own size. The Light Stone was launched from his jaws and landed in the open as Boreas' ribs and shoulder broke under the impact. His head hit something with intense force, a white light of pain flashed through his brain and blinded him, and then everything went black.

–

This was not the first time Boreas woke up from unconsciousness and a severe concussion, but he certainly hoped it would be the last.. "Oof... I hope we won at least..." he groaned.

"I'm afraid we suffered a crushing defeat, my dear fellow..." he heard Octa's voice say gravely. "Drayden is dead, the Nacrene Gym has collapsed and almost all the ancient heritage in there destroyed, Team Plasma has occupied Nacrene City. And worst of all, they captured the Light Stone..."

As Boreas' senses returned, he noticed he was in a pokécenter, lying in a bed. Octa was in the bed next to him. "Wh- what?" the news seemed too terrible to believe.

Octa nodded gravely. "We have just arrived in the Castelia pokécenter... We had no choice but to retreat... It fills me with shame, but not as much as the destruction of all that priceless cultural heritage and Team Plasma's victory fill me with sorrow..."

Boreas saw Black carrying a very battered up Selene, still curled up in a little feathery ball, to a bed, as Nurse War was busy caring for others. He lay her down on the bed and cautiously spread her wings, and suddenly a white stone, much like the one Boreas had risked his life trying to save, fell from her wings onto the ground. Black picked it up in surprise. "Selene, what's this?" he began laughing. "Alder? I think I have something very interesting here!" he said as he walked to a different room with the stone.

Boreas was flabbergasted, but Octa began laughing. "Selene, that stone Team Plasma took, which stone was it?"

"Poor Edward..." Selene cried softly. "Captured by Team Plasma... And I was getting to be such good friends with him..."

Lucius laughed loudly. "You mean you got Boreas to risk his life for some random stone to get Plasma to steal it instead of the Light Stone? Hah, I bet those losers are breaking their heads over why the dragon won't come out! They're a bunch of idiots, getting fooled by you of all people!"

"I... I was just looking out for Edward..." said Selene sadly, but Boreas didn't believe her and grinned as he lost his consciousness in the warm bed, strangely not feeling anger for having got him to risk his life as a distraction, but admiration for saving the Light Stone.

"Hehe... I bet you planned it from the moment you got that stone... You're not as crazy as you pretend to be... Clever Selene..." he said as his eyes closed.

–

Even after Boreas reawoke, it was several hours before he saw Black again. By then, the pokémon had all been cured of their various wounds by the pokécenter's advanced medicine, and were wondering what would happen next. Black came into their room and sat down, looking puzzled.

"Hi, guys..." he said. "I talked to Alder and Iris, and they're certain that this _is_ the Light Stone. You did a good job," he said with a pet to Selene's feathers. "I tried to get Reshiram out of the stone by talking to it with my mind, like N did... But it won't listen. I tried everything, but I can't do it. Alder and Iris told me it doesn't work because I don't understand even my own pokémon. They said if I don't understand my own pokémon, I can't hope to communicate with Reshiram. But I understand you fine, don't I?"

"Of course you do," Octa scoffed.

Black smiled. "See, you guys have faith in me. But I guess 'fine' isn't enough. Alder says I should talk to you a lot, that way I'll learn to understand your minds and talk better and might eventually manage to awake Reshiram. Fortunately, we'll have lots of time to talk on Victory Road... We'll be alone for months as we travel through the Black Mountains, except for wild pokémon."

"But..." said Boreas. "We can't waste that much time now, with the war going on we have to try and stop Team Plasma first before we go to the League! Especially now that Nacrene has been occupied by them..."

Black looked at him in surprise. "I'm surprised you think it's a good idea right away, I had expected you to want to stay here to help the remaining trainers battle Team Plasma. At least, that's what my first reaction was... But Alder told me we stand little chance to win this war in a conventional way. Defeating N at the League is our best option, and while he hopes he can defeat N himself, he knows it's unwise to have no plan B. He wants us to travel to the League, and he wants us to do it right now, as N has probably set out onto Victory Road already, so we'll need to be quick if we want to catch up to him. We'll travel back to Opelucid immediately, and take Route 10 to the entrance of the Victory Road pass through the Black Mountains there. We'll reach the League within three months if we're lucky."

–

Diego looked at the tall, threatening Black Mountains ahead. Crossing them to the pokémon league would be a long and hard journey, but Diego felt more than prepared for it. Yet he was glad to meet with Ghetsis one last time before they entered the pass famously known as Victory Road. There was of course a perfectly good train going to the pokémon league, but challengers had been required to take the pass for ages, as a final test before the league.

"It's a shame your mission was cut short so soon," spoke Ghetsis after Diego had told him all about the mission. Well, not all about it: he had only told Ghetsis Boreas had survived the battle, not that the cause of this was a random surge of pity from Diego's side. Even if Ghetsis was his best friend, it was just too embarrassing to tell. Besides, he didn't want Ghetsis to think there was any chance of Diego letting him down. "But the information you retrieved was of great use while it lasted."

"Lucky, because it'd have been a shame if the past two months had been a waste. I heard about our victory at Nacrene. It makes me wonder if it's really necessary for N to become Champion, it seems to me we are winning this war either way."

Ghetsis smiled. "Yes, it doesn't matter much in the short term. We will rule Unova whether or not N succeeds. But if he doesn't, the title of Champion will remain a rallying point for trainers, a source of resistance. And our future plans for similar take-overs of other lands will be easier if N wins, as it will add an air of legitimacy to our cause. While failure would not ruin our plans, it would place them on weaker footing. But I trust N will win. Between Zekrom's power and your guidance he will be Champion as soon as he arrives."

Diego felt guilty. Ghetsis trusted him, and yet he had displayed severe weakness. He wasn't sure whether his guidance would lead N to victory any more. He decided to try and change the subject. "So, how is your plan to ensure victory coming along?"

Ghetsis chuckled. "Excellently. All six are close to the culmination of their training... As for the seventh, I'm about to lead an expedition to the chasm near Lacunosa myself in a few days. They'll all be ready by the time you reach the League."

–

AUTHOR'S NOTES: WOW, that was a long break. There are several reasons this chapter took so long, most of which I don't want to go into. But I can tell you one of the least important reasons: this is another battle-heavy chapter, which I think I've burnt myself out on in part eight already. Originally, part eight was intended to be the big, epic, actionful part of the war, while part nine would've been calmer and quiter and less battly as they travel through Victory Road. But the two battles of this chapter and the previous one got moved in place in my planning to allow more time for the development of Toxica and Octa's relationship in part eight and because I liked their placing here better. What it does mean, however, is that these battles entered quite far into part nine, which was supposed to be a bit of a break from battling. But now that's done, and the rest of part nine can go roughly as I planned. With some luck I should proceed through it quicker too; while I write primarily for my own enjoyment I don't think it's very fair to make you wait months for a new chapter.

FEEDBACK: Guardian54: Q: Applause, never saw THAT one coming.

A: Glad to have surprised you. Some people picked up on it (mostly during chapter 56, it seems, though someone managed to call it as early as chapter 54), others didn't, which was exactly what I was hoping for. After all, if everyone had seen it beforehand, it would be no surprise at all and Boreas would look stupid for not figuring it out until now, while if no-one had seen it no-one would get to feel clever for solving it, and Boreas connecting the dots might seem like a deus ex machina.

Q: Kingdra is indeed a bad enemy to fight, Dragon/Water makes it so that only Dragon-type moves really do a lot, not even Ice kills it super-effectively...

A: Kingdra is one scary pokémon, yeah. Maybe that's why it's the only pokémon two of the Sages (Gorm and Ghetsis) have in their team in my story.

TheFluffyGlaceon: Q: But on the upside Lucius is alive...for now.

A: Having Lucius be the traitor would hardly be surprising. Then again, I suppose having the newest team member be the traitor isn't that surprising either.

Q: But dude keep on going, and you wont get eaten by my Blastoise!

A: Does that mean your Blastoise is going to eat me for the two month hiatus?

IceDorago: Q: Anyway, that was quite an amazingly written story behind Diego/fake Zeph. I did feel that his appearance after supposedly dying was pretty strange, but I didn't actually piece together everything else. But now that all the different clues were laid out in the story, it makes sense. In fact, if I had an ounce of artistic ability, I'd draw a Holmes Boreas.

A: The clues were planned in advance. I made a list of little things that would give Diego away, and then assigned each a chapter where they could come by in passing, as if they were mere innocent details. It was funny to do, and I was rather worried in the beginning the clues would be too obvious or too obscure, but they seem to have been alright.

Q: Also, I'm tempted to go back and count how many times Diego has had his loins frozen throughout the course of this story.

A: Twice.

Sir Raymond Quaza the First: Q: Can't wait for Sly to show up again at the Elite Four! Will Black recognize him?

A: Hehe, good job on recognising him. Maybe other people recognised him before you, but you're the first to comment about it. Have a cookie for your insight.

Sonosublime: Q: An excellent chapter! The battle with Diego was that much more interesting when he employed his illusion techniques.

A: Thanks. As you know by now, I (and Diego) deliberately held back on using them in their second battle, but here we could use them to our hearts' desire.

Q: As much as I hate him, I'm starting to feel slightly sorry for him, now that I can see he actually has feelings. Under different circumstances, he and Boreas might have been great friends.

A: Well, everyone has feelings. It doesn't make you good. We may see more of what Diego is truly like deep down later on... Whatever that is.

TrueBolt: Q: Did that... But it... How did?... It's... Ooooh... No- wait... I, how... Hmm. But!... uuuh... Okay, okay, okay. I see that- no.. But!... wow... o_o Okay, sorry. I'm good now. You are a genius. You fooled me. Big time. I'm not the most observant reader in the world, but I never EVER guessed that Zeph was Diego. But wow, you DID put all the clues in, and you DID make it so that smart and observant reader could find out, and you DID baffel me. You are brilliant, and I don't think there are enough awards in the US for you. Bravo I say Bravo! (announcer voice)"Critics are calling it the best fanfic of the year, and Roger Riever gives it 'two thumbs up' " XD

A: *bows deeply* Thank you very much for your praise.

Q: I mean; W.O.W... You even made the chapter name sound like Seleene was the mole.

A: Hehe, I'm rather proud of that title and its quintuple meaning myself.

Q: What I meant by 'sheer cold' was that the move he used would have probably K.O'd anything just as the actual move dose. Just wondering if you would call it that, and if not, what does the move 'sheer cold' look like in real life?

A: Well, the game's flavour text describe it as a blast of absolute zero coldness (which is impossible according to the third law of Thermodynamics, but a Glaceon's powers constantly violate the second law of Thermodynamics and probably the first too all the time). So I'd imagine it's just that. It's also not learnable by Glaceon in any way.

Q: I will be the first to go out on a limb, and say that I feel for Deago.

A: That's kind of you.

KidChimera00: Q: One thing I don't get is the limits of a Zoroark's illusion abilities. If they could make themselves look like any thing they wanted to, Why can't the be invisible too?

A: The way I've been handling the ability is that they can only make themselves appear as something else. They can't just become invisible, because it's not something. Diego could make himself look like a chair, or he could make a chair that's not really there next to him, but he couldn't become invisible.

Q: Also, how do they do it anyway?

A: Magic :p. Just like how Boreas makes extreme cold out of nowhere, Octa's vines can grow instantaneously, and Aqua can produce water. Now, as for what this magic does, it's definitely not hallucinogenics: it works too instantaneously and controllably for that, and it also must fool photographs and pokédeces, or Diego would've been found out long ago. The illusion power makes photons change to project a certain image instead of the one they were originally carrying.

The Bulbafinatic: Q: Dark parrying attack? My first thought is Shadow Force, but that will NEVER happen, I know. ...What else is there?

A: Well, it's not really a move in the game, but my guess is it's related to Dark Pulse.

Q: What's your opinion on levels in the Pokemon games? And do you use Pokemon moves strictly by their move sets? And will you use any TMs / HMs in this story?

A: Levels are just the way the game shows pokémon power, they're not really applicable to a story. And I mostly adhere to pokémon's in-game movesets, but not entirely. As for the TMs/HMs, I haven't shown them yet so I probably won't.

Q: Since Octa and Toxica might end up with children, what would they, you know, look like? Some weird Snivy-Oddish hybrid? Oddish with Snivy characteristics? Something like that?

A: In the games all pokémon become their mother's species, while they inherit moves from their father. I'd guess I'd portray that as them being Oddishes, but closer in personality and behaviour to Octa than to Toxica. They might also inherit some of the traits bred into the house of Equinox.

UNKNOWN: Q: Well, yippee. My newest favorite character in this story turns out to be Diego.

A: Hehe, glad to hear it. A good villain shouldn't be hated, or at least not solely hated, but also loved.

Q: We also see a side of Diego we haven't seen before. He hesitates now, which is a hopeful sign of defiance against Plasma. Problem is, will Boreas forgive him if he defects?

A: Don't count on it after he tried to kill Aqua.

Q: Lucius? Not on that list anymore. C'mon, he defended the brother (but unknowingly, was Diego) of the mon he supposedly hates. It appears he does care, deep down.

A: Of course he cares, or he wouldn't be throwing himself into life-threatening situations all the time. He just has a rather unique way of showing it.

Eli: Q: i noticed somthing when reading some Greek mythology: ther is a Greek god named Boreas, god of northern winds (think anywhere cold up north). i dont no if this has been mentioned b4, but i ask: Did you get Boreas' name from the Greek god Boreas, or is it just a coincidence?

A: Well, if you want to have an answer to that question, look up the names of the Greek gods of West, South, and East winds. I believe it should make it clear enough whether or not I named Boreas after that Boreas.

Ganonfan117: Q: Damn good chapter. The FUCK WON'T YOU UPDATE?

A: I was fucking busy with other fucking things and also had a fucking form of fucking writer's fucking block.

Glaceon34: Q: wow, it has been like months and I only have 2 chapter to catch up, should I be sad?

A: A bit, but I'll try to update more frequestly again.

Q: well it has been sometime but I don't remember seeing any clues, or did I miss something

A: Yes, you did. :p

Q: I didn't notice they were from kyurem, it explain two of kyurem new from in B&W 2, talk about B&W 2 do you consider add anything new from it into the story

A: I have some ideas about how to incorporate certain elements from it, you will see. One thing I can promise, though, is that there won't be a sequel to this story based on Black and White 2. It would be impossible because of things going differently than in the games lately, and that will only increase as we move towards the ending. If there is a sequel (I have no idea whether there will be one) it will be something very different.

Q: And that was a fast gym battle, one of the fastest in the whole story!

A: Yeah, didn't feel like writing a big Gym battle. Especially because it would just detract from the real focus of the chapter.


	59. Countdown

Chapter Fifty-Nine: Countdown

Drayden's funeral had been beautiful. Team Plasma had declared him an enemy of humanity and pokémon, but while many people in Opelucid supported Plasma these days, most knew Drayden had been a great mayor. While Boreas hadn't known Drayden well, he hadn't been able to hold back his tears when Iris had talked at his funeral, telling several heart-warming stories about the man who had been like a grandfather to her in a voice breaking with grief, ending in tears while telling how he had died protecting her from Ghetsis and his pokémon. Alder had appointed Iris to be Drayden's successor as Gym Leader, but his successor as mayor wasn't known yet. Black and his pokémon hadn't stayed in Opelucid long enough to find out, as they had left immediately on route 10 after buying supplies for their long journey.

The route had begun flat and grassy, the Black Mountains no more than distant blue shades on the horizon. But as they left Opelucid and the farmland near it behind, the terrain became rougher and the road less travelled. Forested hills were crossed by a wild, fast-flowing river that had eroded tall cliffs. The mountains became closer and more threatening as the road went on. The temperature was quite pleasant here to Boreas, despite it being August.

On the seventh day of their journey they were travelling through a canyon eroded by the wild river. Walkways of wood and metal and rope bridges allowed the road to continue through the canyon, but they were poorly kept and rickety; despite how gorgeous the small, rapid current five metres lower was with its falls, eddies, and whirlpools, everyone seemed somewhat scared. Everyone except Aqua, who was almost skipping on the rickety bridges and walkways.

"Careful, love," Boreas chuckled.

"Hehe, sorry," Aqua giggled as she gave him a quick kiss in passing. "I just can't help being cheery here."

"What's making you so cheerful?" Boreas asked.

"Well, how could I not be cheery?" she said happily. "The river is so fast and young here. I've never seen it like this, though I've lived nearly my whole life on it."

"Oh, that's right," chuckled Boreas, "this is the same river as the one where we met, isn't it?"

Aqua nodded. "I was born on the banks of this river and have spent my entire life in it. Don't be startled if I jump into the water in a while. Not until," she said immediately, to silence Boreas' protests, "we come across a spot where it would be a less bad idea. I'm not about to jump into this rocky canyon, that'd be a bad idea even for a Vaporeon like me."

"Glad you realise that," Boreas chuckled. "Between the rocks and the current, even as good a swimmer as you wouldn't last long."

Aqua pretended to be offended. "The rocks are the only problem. I could swim against a current like this."

"Even with legs as strong as yours you couldn't," said Boreas as he poked Aqua's side playfully.

"Hey, don't do that!" Aqua giggled as Boreas felt a slap of her tail on his rear. "Or I'll push us both in, and we'll see who can handle the current better."

"You wouldn't dare!" chuckled Boreas as he used his own tail to slap her backside back. "Because if you did I'd take you into a blizzard on the mountaintops in a few days and see who holds out longest."

Suddenly Aqua grabbed a tight hold of Boreas. "If you did, I'd just grab you like this to stay warm. So that's not much of a threat."

"Well, I'd do the same-"

Boreas with interrupted by a Octa scraping his throat behind them. "Would you two please end your dalliance? If you continue this you shall fall into the canyon together, and then we'll really see who can avoid the rocks best."

–

At the end of the day, they set down as usual, and Black made dinner for himself and his pokémon. He chuckled as he saw them eat it hungrily. "Don't get too used to it, guys. It won't be long now before we enter Victory Road, and then there'll be no more food we can forage, and the fresh stuff we brought with us will run out a while later too. After that, we'll be eating dried food until we reach the League... So, since I apparently need to talk more to you: how do you feel about that, Boreas?"

Boreas was taken aback by the sudden question. "Uh... I... I guess it sucks. But... you know, I figure we'll make up for it with a big feast once we reach the League."

Black just stared blankly at Boreas, clearly not understanding anything from what was to him a wordless collection of noises, growls, sounds, and some body language. "I agree," he said.

"Do not look forward to that feast too much, my dear fellow," said Octa. "We shall first have to traverse the Black Mountains, truly an arduous task if ever there was one."

Boreas chuckled and looked at the mountains, which were getting quite close now. "Don't worry, Octa, there's a pass through them, after all, it can't be that hard."

"Do not underestimate Victory Road, my dear fellow. The Black Mountains are a very harsh, unforgiving environment. Their summits reach ten kilometres above sea level, two kilometres above the height at which point it is impossible to adjust to the lack of oxygen and pressure. Meaning once this height is reached, it is merely a matter of time before human and pokémon alike die of oxygen deprivation."

"Yeah, but we're not going over the tops. That's the point of a pass."

"Even the pass reaches above six kilometres at times, and never below two. Oxygen will be low, and temperatures cold. It is a very long, twisting path through the mountains, which at one point even makes a gigantic detour of a month to advance twenty kilometres in the densest part of the mountains. The high northern latitude shall also contribute to temperatures being dangerously low. Wild pokémon are dangerous, feral, hungry, and powerful, and the pass is very difficult terrain. Furthermore there's risk of avalanches, plummeting into the many depths between the mountains, and much more."

"How do you know so much about Victory Road anyway?"

"Because twelve members of the House of Equinox have attempted to cross it. All but four perished in the attempt; five of them dying along with their entire team."

"Oh, I'm sorry..."

"Don't be, my dear fellow. They perished seeking glory, and all four that made it through, my great-grandmother last among them, eventually defeated the Elite Four. I can only hope I shall be the fifth to receive that honour."

"So do I, deary," said Toxica. "But I've heard stories about the Black Mountains and Victory Road too. I 'eard there's wild Tyranitars and Dragonites and Articunos and all sorts of other dangerous pokémon in those mountains, and even more bizarre, nameless monsters too! All underfed an' willing to eat anything weaker than them. They say it's where winters go for their summer holidays."

Octa rolled his eyes. "A winter is merely the state of the Earth's axial tilt directing one's own hemisphere away from the Sun. It cannot go on 'summer holiday', and therefore shall not go on one thither."

"It's just a metterfor!" Toxica blushed.

"Well, whether or not the Black Mountains are a popular summer vacation destination for winters, winter shall indeed make our crossing even harder."

Boreas frowned in confusion. "It's August, Octa; that's summer here."

"Yes, it is. However, our crossing of the mountains could easily take three months. By then, it'll be November. And even before that time, we'll be in danger, for autumn comes early and harsh here. There is a good reason the Pokémon League rarely receives challenges after September: usual challengers are not desperate enough to cross Victory Road in autumn or winter, for all they have to gain or lose is the title of Champion. Unlike them, we do not have the luxury of waiting half a year and shall have to transverse the mountains regardless of the season. Isn't that right, Black, old chap?" he asked Black friendlily.

Aware that attention was on him, Black smiled and nodded. "Sure, why not?"

"Oh dear," sighed Octa, "methinks it'll be easier to teach a birch to speak Finnish than to get you to understand us..."

"But what about the coming winter, Octa?" Toxica nervously asked. "What are the mountains gonna be like then?"

"Even worse than they would be otherwise. We must expect heavy snowfall and blizzards, particularly near the end of our journey. It'll be very harsh."

Lucius snorted. "I don't care, I can get through it. And then those Plasma idiots will be sorry."

Octa nodded. "I shall take the challenge as well; I do not fear these mountains."

"We've been through tougher things... I guess," said Toxica. "A little winter, or a lot of it, isn't going to scare me off."

Octa's stories about the Black Mountains had scared Boreas, to be sure. But he was far more scared of what might happen if they didn't go on. Besides, he could handle cold. "I'm in too. I've been part of this team for almost my whole life, I'm not turning my back on you all now."

Selene croaked her support too, and they spent the rest of the evening chatting amicably with Black looking at them with a clueless look on his face, occasionally interjecting a non sequitur. It wasn't until a few days later that Boreas realised how quiet Aqua had been during the entire conversation.

–

They had arrived at Route 10's northern end; a large arch in the mountainside where the forested road finally met the huge mountains ahead. They were very close to the source of the river now, the tiny stream roaring down on the steep mountainside. As they approached the arched gate, Black suddenly stopped and slowly turned around, facing his pokémon.

"My friends..." he spoke. "Octa, Boreas, Lucius, Toxica, Selene, and Aqua..." He stopped talking for a moment, then continued with a melancholic smile. "Octa, Boreas, do you remember when you each used to sit on one of my shoulders? And sometimes one of you would climb onto my head, and I'd scold you and tell you to get down... When defeating a single Gym Leader was our goal... And Team Plasma just some people in stupid clothes. I even nearly gave Boreas away to have him found foster parents.

And now look at us... Eight badges, and about to enter Victory Road! Where'd the days when Boreas used to trip over his own feet when he attacked go? Fortunately we met many new friends on the way here... And together we've been through so much; crossed deserts and mountains, defeated eight Gym Leaders, and even battled Team Plasma's Sages and came out alive... Mostly. But beyond that gate awaits our greatest challenge yet! One which I wish Capella was here to take with us. We'll cross Victory Road, defeat the Elite Four and the Champion, and get rid of Team Plasma; are you with me?"

"Aye! Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens!"

"Yes! Let's do this"

"What're you even asking for?"

"I'm in!"

"Yeah! Let's make Uncle Istvan and all our uncles Istvan proud!"

"I'm sorry, but I'm afraid I'm not with you."

All pokémon turned towards the dissenting voice. "Wh-what do you mean?" Boreas stammered.

"I'm sorry, my love," said Aqua, "but as I've said before, I'm strictly neutral about the war. I'm not even really part of your team, just travelling along with you because I like being with you. But I think it's time for me to say goodbye now."

Boreas could barely believe it. "But... Can't you come with us a bit longer? Over Victory Road, I mean..."

"Boreas, listen. I know you really want me along... And I really hate the thought of letting you go over those mountains without me, but I really have no intention of setting a single step onto Victory Road. It's incredibly dangerous there, you know."

Boreas frowned; he had thought better of her. "So you're abandoning me because you're scared?"

"I'm not abandoning you!" Aqua snapped. "And I just don't want to go there. You've got this big important cause that gives you reason to cross the Black Mountains... But I don't. I've got no cause like that; while Team Plasma is a bunch of pig-headed bastards, I do think most humans should stay away from pokémon. I simply don't have a reason to go through three months of hell on Victory Road, so I'm not going to. I'll just wait right here, on this pleasant route where the river is young and fresh, for you to return."

"And what if I don't return at all? Isn't that a good cause; accompanying me and helping me stay safe? I love you, you can't just leave me!"

Aqua sighed. "Boreas, I love you deeply, but you're being incredibly selfish. I trust you to be clever enough to get you out of any trouble that comes to you... And I trust Octa to get you out of any trouble you get yourself in. You can do this without me."

"Maybe! But you're still abandoning me, letting me go over those hellish mountains alone! I don't want to be away from you for so long, especially not in such an environment. And I thought you'd want to keep me close too..."

"Boreas, I do want to be with you, but I'm still not following you onto Victory Road. Once you calm down and stop being childish and selfish I'm sure you'll understand."

Boreas' anger only increased by the accusations of childishness and selfishness she was making. He wasn't the one being selfish, he was on a mission to save all of Unova! She was being selfish for not even accompanying him. "I don't want to go so long without you!"

"Then I guess you'll have to stay behind too," said Aqua coldly.

It was a very tempting offer, and a big part of Boreas wanted to take it. But he couldn't let Team Plasma have their way, and he couldn't let his friends face them alone. "As Octa said just now: faithless is he who says farewell when the road darkens. Or she," he added with an angry frown.

"Then I guess this is goodbye!" Aqua snapped.

"I guess so!" Boreas sneered.

"Do me a favour and don't fall off the mountain," Aqua said as she turned around and walked away.

"Hmpf, good riddance," Boreas muttered as he too turned around and faced his friends, who were staring at him. "What?"

Octa tried to cover his face with the palm of his hand in exasperation, but missed due to his short arms and long neck. He looked at his own hand in surprise, then said: "My dear fellow, you honestly are unbelievable. Go apologise to her immediately."

"No! She's the one who should apologise!" Boreas felt betrayed at Octa taking her side. "I can't believe you're siding with her!"

"I am siding with neither of you, but I implore you not to let your farewell to your dearly beloved be like this. In the best case, it'll be months before you see her again, and during those months your anger shall subside and you'll merely be left with bitterness. In the worst case, you may never see her again, and she will be crushed by the knowledge that these were the last things she said to you. Make up with Aqua, please."

"Boreas..." said Black. "Victory Road will wait, go settle whatever that was."

"Alright..." muttered Boreas as he turned around and followed Aqua. At least until he was out of sight, when he sat down. He had no intention of going back to Aqua with his tail between his legs to apologise as she was the one in the wrong, abandoning him, whom she claimed to love. But like this, at least, he wouldn't have Octa continue to nag him. He knew that Octa was probably right that it would feel really bad once his anger subsided... But he'd much rather deal with a bit of regret than apologise to Aqua now.

After waiting for a while, he returned, smiling a fake smile. "You were right, guys. It feels so much better to have said a proper goodbye."

Octa smiled. "I'm glad you settled it. Now come, Victory Road awaits..."

They walked into the arch in the mountainside, disappearing into the twilit darkness.

–

After a while, they emerged into the open air again. It was a large, entirely empty dale in the mountainside. No grass or any other plants grew here; it was a bare, rocky vale with steep rocky sides. Another large arch was on the other side of the dale, but it was closed with huge, ornate doors. The silence was palpable. A single black-clothed human stood in the empty space. "Halt!" he spoke, and his voice echoed through the dale, "unqualified ones shall not pass! Only those who earned the Trio Badge may enter these gates!"

Black and his pokémon walked towards the man, their footsteps echoing loudly through the dale. Boreas thought back to the day they had won the badge.

_Boreas swept a pawful of macaroni from one of the plates into his opponents eyes in a blinding Macaroni-Attack. The Pansear was so surprised he lost his balance and fell backwards off the table. Boreas jumped off after him as the table's occupants cursed and snarled at him. _

_He landed on top of his opponent with the vertical equivalent of a Tackle and scratched him with his claws before the Pansear managed to kick him off. Instead of running back into the empty circle, Boreas ran under the tables, using the seated people's legs for cover. Between the cover and the macaroni stinging in his eyes Trogdor didn't even remotely manage to hit Boreas, only succeeding in searing tablecloths and trousers. When he reached a certain table, Boreas jumped up and dug his claws into the tablecloth, dragging it off the table with his weight as Trogdor reached him. The large bowl of tamato soup on the table fell all over him._

Once they reached the guard, Black showed him a small badge with three coloured pins. The man saluted and the gate opened. "Oh holder of the Trio Badge, challenge all that you face!"

–

They emerged into another small vale. Unlike the last one, this one was not bare and rocky: grass grew on the ground and a small stream of water flowed through the side of the dale, emerging from a hole in the rocky side of the vale and disappearing into another hole. The gate on the opposite side was flanked by two torches, and a lonely guard awaited.

"Halt! Only those who earned the Basic Badge may pass!"

_Octa extended his vines, and the Watchog was ready to dodge them as he charged. But Octa didn't use the vines to attack his enemy, but the floor. He pushed himself off the ground and launched himself over the top of the two metres-tall bookcase. Immediately after landing on the other side of it, he pushed the bookcase, which was severely weakened due to the several attacks it had absorbed. With a monumental creaking, it fell over, right on top of the charging Watchog who couldn't get away in time, despite trying to flee._

As they reached the guard, Black showed a thin brown rectangle with markings that made it look like the spine of an old book.

The guard saluted and the gate opened. "Oh holder of the Basic Badge, show the knowledge you have obtained!"

–

The third vale was rocky once again, but with rocks stacked up like old ruins, and some grass growing. "Halt!" spoke the guard. "Only those who earned the Insect Badge may pass!"

_Suddenly the icy coldness of the rock melted through Boreas' skin and filled his entire body. For one second it felt unbearably cold, then he experienced the tactile equivalent of looking at a picture of two silhouetted faces and suddenly seeing it as a picture of a white candlestick, and felt very comfortable with the cold instead. He was filled with a deliciously icy feeling and a feeling of power as he was growing with amazing speed. His brown fur was rapidly turning an icy light-blue, and hit tail grew longer, more pointed, and less bushy. His legs increased in size, making him feel like someone standing on stilts. His collar was retracting, and instead longer dark blue hair was sprouting on his head in a haircut formed of three diamonds of hair, while two strands of it grew very long. The light finally subsided, and Boreas was reborn as a Glaceon._

_"Splendid, my dear fellow!" Octa cheered._

"_Wow, you evolved!" Black said, "Get him with... Let's try Icy Wind!"_

_"Icy Wind?" Boreas mocked, noticing his voice's altered sound, "I can do better than that! I'll use Blizzard!"_

Black showed the guard a green badge shaped like the wings of an insect. "Oh holder of the Insect Badge, show you can survive in any environment like an insect!"

–

The next dale was grassy, and in the centre of it stood a large sculpture representing a Heracross.

"Halt! Only those who earned the Bolt Badge may pass!"

_Boreas realised timing would be vital to his plan and glimpsed between the searing flames embracing him to time it right. He mentally counted down as he slid rapidly over the roller-coaster tracks while freezing them, then took a big jump. He heard Zebstrika follow him and smirked as he neared another part of the track. A moment before landing, he created a fierce Icy Wind that blew him just besides the tracks. He fell into the black depths as the confused Zebstrika landed on the tracks. And was promptly hit by the cart coming the other way._

Black showed a yellow badge shaped like a lightning bolt to the guard, who saluted. "Oh holder of the Bolt Badge, unfurl a shocking battle!"

–

The next dale was rather a surprising contrast with the previous four: a metallic bridge with flashing coloured lights spanned a small gorge in the ground.

"Halt! Only those who earned the Quake Badge may pass!"

Boreas only remembered little of watching the underground battle with Clay. He had been utterly distracted from the battle by Aqua's proposal to leave together. Boreas suddenly felt a pang of regret for not actually going after Aqua to apologise just now...

After crossing the bridge, Black showed the guard a brown a brown badge like a section of earth after an earthquake. "Oh holder of the Quake Badge, make the hearts of your foes' tremble!"

–

The next dale barely seemed above the surface. It was the bottom of a deep, narrow canyon, leading to the next gate and its guard.

"Halt! Only those who earned the Jet Badge may pass!"

_Boreas tried to control the copious amounts of air in the large hangar, to whip it up into an icy storm, but that was not easy. The air was standing still here, lazy and stagnant. It didn't want to move, but he prodded it on with Icy Wind, slowly getting it to get off its lazy arse so that it started moving about, first as a calm breeze, then as a stiff cool wind that gyred through the Gym. Boreas found it increasingly easy to control and use. He directed the winds to the Swanna to interfere with its flight. Of course, he couldn't precisely control the unpredictable, chaotic air, but giving it a nudge and a suggestion for the general direction of what he wanted it to do worked just as well._

_Swanna was having heavy troubles staying afloat. Skyla shouted commands at it, but it couldn't even hear her over the rapid winds. The air itself seemed to want to move and make a storm, all it needed was some encouragement to actually do it._

_His opponent swooped to the platform, battling the fierce winds. But it didn't even have the mobility to dodge the five Ice Beams Boreas shot at it as it struggled against the winds and was hit by all. Thoroughly weakened, it managed to land on the platform, only to be taken down by two more Ice Beams. _

Black showed a badge shaped like a blue feather to the guard once they had traversed the canyon. "Oh holder of the Jet Badge, blast ahead with tremendous force!"

–

Boreas let out a small yelp of surprise as they emerged into the open once again, because it really was very open this time: they were not in a dale, but on a thin ridge on the steep mountainside, overlooking another mountain and a forest deep down. The ridge winded along the mountainside, until it entered into it again with another gate guarded by a black-clothed human.

"Halt! Only those who earned the Freeze Badge may pass!"

_Powerful, ice-cold winds blew around the two Glaceons as they struggled. Boreas tried to control the air around them, because his opponent was trying to make another Blizzard. They fought both physically and using their icy powers, but while Boreas was at the moment at an advantage in the physical fight, he was rapidly losing control of the air around them, which blew faster and colder, attacking him. He grabbed his opponent and jumped back, letting her go right where he had stood before as he jumped out of the Blizzard, while at the same time suddenly turning his own control of the winds around, intensifying them instead of lulling them down, so his opponent was suddenly caught in the middle of her own Blizzard. She tried to calm the roaring snowstorm down, but while Boreas couldn't yet start one for himself, he could intensify it now that it was there. By the time his opponent managed to calm the Blizzard down, she was lying on the ground, covered in ice and shivering heavily. _

Black showed a white badge shaped like three icicles to the guard. "Oh holder of the Freeze Badge, show you can keep a cool head in the greatest of perils!"

–

The next gate emerged much higher up on the mountain, in an icy dale.

"Halt! Only those who earned the Legend Badge may pass!"

_Boreas' body cooled down to two-hundred degrees below zero and he unleashed that cold into the air, which immediately blasted through the Gym in a ferocious and ice-cold stormwind. The Gym's windows shattered and everything creaked with cold as the howling Blizzard blew. It was raining; not with water but with liquid air that froze anything it touched. It was very cold even to Boreas, but it was nothing compared to what his opponents were going through. Haxorus was writhing in pain, its mouth and eyes frozen over already._

_The same was happening to Druddigon, and unfortunately to Octa. Boreas tried to keep the worst of the storm away from his friend, but he could barely keep the Blizzard from going out of control again; there was no way he could control it enough to make it spare Octa. Fortunately, Boreas saw him disappear as Black returned him to his pokéball._

_It was down to only Boreas now, but the Blizzard was getting harder and harder to control. It drained his energy to keep it under control. He saw his enemies, though hurt and freezing, weren't defeated yet, and he knew he would probably just collapse in exhaustion soon. He gave the Blizzard his final bit of energy, and fortunately saw Drayden return his pokémon to their pokéballs. _

Black showed a black badge shaped like a mace to the guard. "Oh, holder of the Legend Badge, pass through Victory Road and prove that you too can be a legend!"

–

The tunnel emerged into a final rocky dale, much like the first one. But this time, two gigantic dragon statues were carved out of the sides of the wall. And instead of a gate, there was a thin passage leading on, without a guard. After looking his pokémon in the eyes one by one, Black walked into the passage.

–

AUTHOR'S NOTES: Well, that took quite long, but at least it wasn't nearly as long as chapter 58 took. I'm writing a bit more than I did then, but it's still not much. It may get better in the future or not; I don't know.

I hope the second half didn't get too boring and repetitive. I thought it would be nice to do a little flashback for each gym battle, and build some tension.

By the way, TrueBolt is working on an audio-book of this story. :D He needs help though, of voice-actors and artists alike. So get into contact with him if you would like to help out.

FEEDBACK: Guardian54: Q: I agree you cannot incorporate B&W 2 effectively, due to several reasons, the largest being the ice age problem. If Reshiram has power enough to glass large parts of Unova in his battle with Zekrom, then it is not possible for an ice age to occur as long as Black still has Reshiram.

Does that makes sense?

A: I would say there are much, much bigger problems. But I can't go into details, as some are spoilers.

The Bulbafinatic: Q: Selene, you accursed genius! I can't help but wonder if she's planned it all out, or is just clueless but very lucky, or if she just makes it up as she goes along...

A: Much like Captain Jack Sparrow, who knows? I sure don't.

UNKNOWN: Q: Hm, good. I was getting a little worried. But if you went this far, you wouldn't discontinue this story, right? ... Right?

A: Probably not, no. We're nearing the end now; next up is chapter 60 and with that we enter the final ten. I really want to finish it, sooner rather than later.

Q: Selene, you crazy bird! You're not as crazy as you seem! Maybe there isn't a screw loose in her ol' noggin after all...

A: Oh, there definitely is a screw loose. The question is, how many of them are loose?

Q: Drayden is dead? I expected for it to have a big impact on everyone, mostly Iris.

A: Well, it did. But this story is seen from Boreas' point of view.

Q: Kinda sad. I thought Boreas would last a little longer in combat. Perhaps he should keep an item with him from now on, such as an Oran or Sitrus berry? Since Pokemon are obviously smarter here than in the games maybe they could carry and use potions and revives. Heh, maybe even wear, I don't know, a Rocky Helmet or something to keep himself from fainting easily.

A: Hehe, that's a funny thought. The berries wouldn't be that effective in this story, because I've portrayed them as just food. The potions would work, if the battles didn't happen so quickly. You can hardly take a drinking break in a battle.

TrueBolt: Q: Yeah, I got kinda woried about you when you didn't update in like three weeks. I was like "Aw dayum, he didn't quit did he? OMG I told him not to die. o_o I should keep my big mouth shut."

A: Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated. It was mainly my motivation that died.

Q: So great chapter bro. Seleen ish kewl me tinks. Wierd but cool, and it's good to know that she and Lucious have eachother to rely on becaus I'm not sure anyone else would be willing to stick together with them because of their... Um. Uniqueness.

A: The fact that they both need to put up with each other's 'uniqueness' is probably part of the reason why they're friends, indeed.

Q: I wish our medicine was as advanced as theirs. I could do a lot more and be less afraid of the consiquenses.

A: Indeed, it would be very good if medicine really was that advanced. But who knows where it'll be in a century or two? I'm reminded of the scene in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home where Dr. McCoy is horrified by the fact that Chekov has fallen in the hands of 20th century medicine. And later, when he finds an old lady having a kidney dialysis in the hospital, mutters "Dialysis... My god, is this the Dark Ages?" before handing her a pill that regenerates her kidneys instantly.


	60. Cowardice, Love, and the River of Time

Chapter Sixty: Cowardice, Love, and the River of Time

Diego climbed back down with a mind that was finally clear of concern. Climbing over the freezing cold precipice was almost as tough to do downwards as upwards, but at least this time it was just physically heavy; he could handle that. After weeks of being troubled by his error in the Opelucid Gym, he could now finally relax. He knew it wouldn't be repeated. While he couldn't deny he felt rudimentary feelings of friendship towards N, and even Boreas, they wouldn't interfere with his service to his true friend, Ghetsis. He was sure of that now.

Friendship was a beautiful thing, Diego reflected. In fact, it was the very concrete Team Plasma was built with, but it was a massive weakness when felt towards an enemy. But now that he was finally sure he wouldn't submit to that weakness again, he could rest easily.

His muscles ached by the time he neared the ground; it was a relief to land on it safely. "Diego!" N called happily. "I was getting worried about you, what took you so long?"

Diego smiled. "I saw a path up there, just as I suspected. But I had to make sure it wasn't a dead end, and walked it for a bit, and a good thing I did, because if I hadn't done that, we'd be climbing up this precipice right now to walk the path... Only to find out after an hour it suddenly ends into a steep depth."

"Oh," N looked disappointed, "I guess we can't cut time off our journey that way, then?"

"No, I'm afraid not, we'll have to follow the normal pass. But I did see some... Inspiring views up there, and they gave me the strength to carry on."

N laughed. "Glad to hear it."

_No_, thought Diego as he smiled along friendlily, _you wouldn't be if you had any idea of the truth._

–

Four weeks had they been on Victory Road. Four weeks in the ferocious, harsh landscape. From Octa's stories, Boreas had imagined endless snowy mountains, but it turned out the Black Mountains weren't so monotone. The range covered an enormous area, and so it contained very varied climates. For the first few days, they had passed high over the mountainside, while deep down in the valleys a landscape similar to Route 10 - rough, but pleasant - was spread out. The pass had then winded up high onto the mountains, where lichen were the closest thing to plants that grew on the bare rock, and snow and ice dotted the pass. During this part of the journey the lush landscape in the dales had given way to dry, yellowish grass without trees and what looked to be the ruins of an abandoned city.

They had travelled through the caves of a mountain for a day, their light and a map Black had all that stood between them and a death of thirst deep in the enormous maze of pitch-black tunnels after aimlessly wandering for weeks. Everyone had been relieved when they had emerged from the dark caves. The road had become even rougher after this, and they had had to climb up and down sheer cliffs several times. Eventually, the pass dropped lower and lower and finally reached a forested dale, where a dense forest of pines and thorny shrubs grew.

However, after a while the valley they walked through reached upwards and the trees stopped growing. Soon there was no grass either; just bare ground, cracked with its dryness. There were many white salt crystals in the landscape. While their journey had only taken them through cold until then, a fierce, dry desert heat plagued these broken lands. It was unexpected to say the least, and Boreas had tried to keep them all somewhat cool for the whole time... But after five days in the searing, cracked landscape, he was exhausted. He couldn't even keep himself cold any more, let alone his friends, and struggled through the blazing heat.

What was even worse was that the water was nearly gone despite the rationing Black had started when they reached the mountainous desert. Boreas would occasionally look up longingly to the snow-covered tops of the mountains surrounding them, but if they left the path to climb up there, they would never manage to find the way out of the treacherous, huge mountain range.

The elements were hardly the only danger plaguing them on their arduous journey: the wild pokémon, while not very numerous, were adapted to the fierce landscape, and therefore very powerful. Several had attacked, not as a challenge or to try and steal some food, as wild pokémon in other places would occasionally do, but quite simply for the flesh on their bodies. There was little food here, and so the creatures that lived here would eat anything or anyone. Despite each member of the party being quite powerful by now, these pokémon proved highly dangerous, and they had had to flee from an encounter with multiple ones on more than one occasion. Fortunately, no-one had been killed or severely wounded yet, and Black was getting quite skilled at treating lighter wounds.

Boreas pretended to his friends the horrid dry heat of these broken lands was the only reason he was in a mood fouler than the Thames during the Great Stink. The truth was, of course, that they had been right: he should've apologised to Aqua for what he had said. He felt like punching himself for his stubborn idiocy. He could've easily foreseen this, and in fact he had. Even Black had managed to see it. He wished more than anything now that he had parted on better terms with Aqua... Or better yet, that she had come with him.

He missed her cheerful demeanour, her infectious laugh, her gorgeous eyes, her sense of humour, her frequent flirting, her supple movement as she walked, and the beating of her heart against his at night. He missed her deeply, and he was a fool to have fought with her when she left. He could try to console himself with the knowledge that she was a lot safer than he was right now, but it didn't really help. He felt almost as bad as he had in Chargestone Cave. Fortunately, whether it was the wisdom of his more mature age or the fact that there had been no cascade of disasters this time, the despair was less overwhelming, and he hadn't had the urge to jump into a single gorge yet. But despite that, his mood was still permanently clouded by it, and the others had learnt to give him a wide berth.

After several days they finally left the dried-out wasteland behind them and began rising in altitude. Temperatures soon passed from very hot to very cold as they climbed, and so the rest of the team once again wore their winter clothes to protect them from the cold. The icy cold felt much better to Boreas than the heat did, yet he didn't feel better mentally.

They were passing under a high, icy precipice with loads of rocks sticking out from it when Boreas heard a clumsy flapping of wings and felt a heavy load land on his shoulder as claws pinched him. "Ow! Selene, go sit on Lucius' shoulder!" he snapped.

Selene acted like she hadn't heard him. "You know, I bet you could climb this precipice."

"And I would if I had a desire to break my neck. Now get off me!"

"I think you would have a really great view from up there."

"Then fly there, but get off me!"

"Maybe there will even be a better path to the League up there."

"And maybe there won't. Get off me." Boreas was trembling with annoyance now at how she was just ignoring all he said.

"I also think there may be pixies up there. Uncle Istvan always says-"

In a sudden burst of fury, Boreas grabbed her forcefully, pulled her off his shoulder, and held her in front of his face as she let out a cry of surprise and pain as he squeezed her in his grip. "When did I ever give you the impression I give a Mankey's toss about what your Uncle Istvan, or you for that matter, said? I told you to leave me alone, so shut your stupid beak, you pointless collection of feathers, before I freeze it shut!"

Selene squirmed in his paws with a look of terror on her face as she looked him in the eye. Boreas felt good seeing her fear and how he had finally made it clear he wasn't in the mood for her rubbish. "B-Boreas... I-I-" she stammered.

"Let the bird go right now, pup, before I burn your ass!" snapped Lucius' voice behind him.

Boreas turned to see a very threatening, angry look on Lucius' face. He resisted the urge to throw Selene forcefully into the snow and let her go. Clumsily and panicky, she flew to Lucius. "Fine," Boreas spat, "but keep her away from me."

"No, you keep away from her," growled Lucius. "'Cause if you hurt one more feather on her, I'll flame-broil you. And by the way, could you either cheer up or kill yourself?"

"What?"

"You heard me, pup. Your attitude has sucked since the first step we took on Victory Road, so I'm telling you now: quit being a pissbucket, kill yourself, or I'll do it for you."

"You don't scare me!" roared Boreas, furious at the threat.

Eyes ablaze with rage, Lucius growled. "If we didn't need you to help get revenge on Team Plasma, I'd kill you were you stand, right now!"

Before Boreas could respond, Toxica was between them. "Now shut up, both of you!" she snapped. "Lucius, go walk in the back! Boreas, stay at the front! And don't you dare fight again!"

"Hmpf, fine," Boreas sneered as he walked on.

–

Boreas couldn't sleep. He just lay there in the icy cold tent, his friends all sleeping under thick amounts of blankets while he was tossing and turning above them. His anger at Selene and Lucius gone, he felt like a massive git for what he'd done. He was furious at himself, really, for how stupid he had been acting lately.

Deciding he wasn't going to catch any sleep anyway, he sneaked out of the tent and went outside. It was frigidly cold, his breath turning to steam instantly in the night air, and amazingly dark. The sky was pitch-black apart from the stars, and there was absolutely no light on the few clouds that were in the sky: they looked like holes among the clear, bright stars, being exactly as black as the darkness between the stars. The darkness was incredible so far from human inhabitation and their lights. Boreas had never seen the sky like this before, with thousands of stars, even incredibly faint ones. Mars and Jupiter were brilliantly bright lights in the pure darkness, as impressive as the Sun and moons normally were. He couldn't see a metre before him and found a rock to sit on by touch alone.

Boreas looked at the amazing display above him as if enchanted for a while before his thoughts finally began to drift back to his troubles. He had first alienated Aqua, then attacked Selene, and nearly fought with Lucius. _Only Toxica, Octa, and Black left to alienate_, he thought grimly. He had selfishly insisted his lover accompany him, and become angry when she had refused; insulted her and her love for him. He had pridefully and childishly refused to apologise to her, and even lied to his friends about it. He had attacked his friend. He remembered Selene's terrified look and how he had squeezed her in his paw furiously. He felt contempt for himself as her terrified face flashed before his eyes. He had actually enjoyed seeing her so scared at the time. He was really no better than Diego.

Or maybe he was worse, even. Diego had terrorised and tormented his enemies, after all, while Boreas had done it to a friend. Boreas sobbed as he realised Aqua was probably better off without him. And so were his friends. He wasn't worthy of their friendship, he realised as he heard their snores come from the tent. They were better off without a miserable, childish egotist like him in their lives.

He got up and started walking away into the darkness. He wasn't sure where he was going, but wherever it was would be somewhere he wouldn't bother his friends ever again. The Black Mountains were certainly large enough to spend a lifetime in.

After walking a short bit, he stopped. _What am I doing?_ He asked himself. _Just running away? So now I'm a coward too, perfect._

_I'm just protecting them from me. I'm just as bad as Diego, and I would do anything to keep him away from them!_

_I may be a childish, selfish bastard, but running away won't make me any better! I can't run away, instead I should stay with them and try to be a better friend. A better person._

_But I attacked Selene and delighted in her fear for me!_

_Right, so the first thing I should do is apologise humbly to her. And Lucius. And Aqua, when I see her again. They all deserve an apology for what I said and did. It's the least I can do._

He sighed and walked back, sitting down. He looked at the stars again, and was surprised by a very bright light over the mountains in the east. After his initial surprise, he realised it was Venus, making even Mars and Jupiter seem pale by comparison. Its light weakly illuminated the dark landscape, allowing him to see a little ahead. It cast its weak light on everything, and a very slight difference between light and shadow was visible. Boreas knew Sunrise couldn't be very far away now, and he awaited it anxiously so he could apologise for his misbehaviour. He still felt a powerful urge not to, though, something telling him it was all Selene's fault for bothering him, that he had been completely right to attack her, but he was determined to ignore those thoughts. They had got him into this mess in the first place.

Yet he grimly realised while he could apologise to Selene and Lucius at dawn, it would be months before he would see Aqua again, if he ever saw her again at all. With a deep sigh, he felt his awfully bad mood return.

"...I need to tell someone..." he muttered, realising he would only end up doing more damage to his friendships if he didn't. Despite his intentions, the guilt and sorrow he felt over how badly he had messed up were already clouding his mood once more. If he didn't tell someone, he would be lucky not to go insane before they reached the League, and even if he didn't, his persistently bad mood would likely alienate all his friends.

Yet the thought of actually going up to one of them and admitting that he'd lied to them for such a pathetically childish reason was not a pleasant one. Octa was the only person he could possibly tell something like that, and even to him it would be very hard. _Well_, thought Boreas, _I guess I'm starting off being a better person with a big test of my conviction..._

–

"...The police and Team Plasma have responded to riots breaking out during a protest against the recent closing of the Gym..." Aqua sighed as the newsreader rattled on about the riot, making it sound like half the city had been blown up. She'd heard the same nonsense countless times already. She perked her ears again as she heard the next topic: "...Research shows children who grow up with pokémon grow up to be violent, unproductive members of society..."

Aqua snorted. "What, are you trying to blame Team Plasma on us pokémon?" she chuckled bitterly, awaiting the next topic of the television program as an interview with someone in a white coat was conducted.

"...The Pokémon League-" Aqua suddenly gave the television all her attention, perking her ears and feeling her heart pound in her throat. "-Has been suspected of involvement in recent..." Aqua sighed in annoyance and stopped listening as the news reached its end. She got back down on all fours and walked away from the house through the window of which she had been looking at the humans' television. She looked around to see if anyone spotted her, but between the rainy day and the general aura of fear that hung over Opelucid, and presumably the rest of Unova as well, most humans were inside. Which was just as well, as Team Plasma assumed any pokémon in a city was some trainer's pokémon these days; Aqua had already had to flee several times.

As she reached the woods at the edge of Opelucid, Aqua felt a lot better, despite the lack of news of Boreas. She had only managed to remain on Route 10 for two weeks after his departure; despite how furious she was about how Boreas had treated her, that seemed inconsequential next to the memory of the happy times she'd shared with him. The thought she might never see his roguish smile again was terrifying, and a big part of her wished she'd gone with him; even if it meant going through hell, at least they'd be going through it together. Though she definitely hadn't forgotten the things he'd said, and was going to give him an earful next time she saw him.

So she'd come to Opelucid's outskirts. She knew a challenger to the Pokémon League was big news, and so she had made sure to watch the news through the window of some humans' house every day. She knew it would be at least another month before there was any chance of their arrival, but somehow this felt a little better anyway.

Yet, while she had been listening for news of challengers to the League, she had caught the other news too. Team Plasma seemed to be winning the war; most of Unova already seemed to support them. The news certainly did; Aqua wondered if it was because of Zekrom's influence or if Plasma was actively controlling the news. She remembered how Diego had pointed out Plasma had had decades to prepare for this war... Probably long enough to have people in high positions in all kinds of organisations.

A few months ago, the knowledge of Team Plasma's near-total victory would've made her very happy, but it didn't seem like such a good thing now. She had seen Team Plasma's victory as a liberation for all pokémon, so that none would ever have to suffer as she had by their hands... But more and more, she realised Team Plasma wasn't looking for liberation for anyone. What they seemed to be doing was creating a rigid, tyrannical order to rule Unova with. All they really cared for was power... Yet she knew N was different. Team Plasma had deceived N just as much as they'd deceived the rest of Unova.

Aqua sighed and tried to get to sleep as she settled down in her hideout. But thoughts kept raging through her mind, making her unable to fall asleep, just like Boreas, far away. After hours of lying awake in the dark, moonless night, stirring and constantly feeling annoyingly itchy, she tried to focus her thoughts on Boreas. By thinking about their happier times together she managed to dispel all other thoughts from her mind. Reliving her memories slowly turned more fanciful and dreamy as her mind became clouded as she sank away seamlessly into dreams and sleep.

At some point, the happy memories of their frolicking in the grasslands of Route 7 had turned into a dream where she was battling foes with Boreas. The enemies were easily dispatched by both of them, but more kept flocking on. Aqua admired the grace and skill with which Boreas fought, and she clearly wasn't the only one, as she heard many cries of admiration. But her lover only had eyes for her, and their battle was elegant and dancelike; even featuring a few quick kisses between them. Oddly the cries sounded a lot like cries of fear and pain by now, and there were very loud sounds of battle even while they weren't actually attacking their opponents.

Aqua slowly awoke from her dreams, realising the cries and sounds of battle weren't in her dreams. Flashes of light came from between the trees. Curious and disturbed by the desperate cries, Aqua quickly made her way to the source of the disturbance, standing on a small precipice to observe what was going on four metres below. Four members of Team Plasma were battling a single trainer, surrounded on all sides except for the precipice. A Staraptor lay in a pool of its own blood, and the remains of what looked to be a Tepig made Aqua glad there wasn't much light to see with. She stared in shock at the battle beneath her, which the trainer was clearly losing. Her wounded Exeggutor was enveloped in flames, screaming from each of its mouths. Only a single, wounded Leafeon stood between the trainer and her enemies.

A blast of rocks and metal from a Probopass knocked down both the Leafeon and his trainer. Several more attacks were directed at them, until they lay on the ground, groaning.

"Stupid girl," sneered one of the Plasma members. "Now let me give you the penalty for opposing Team Plasma! Probopass, Stone E-"

The Leafeon propped himself up on three legs and snarled furiously at the grunt, wobbling weakly. His Leaf Blade glowed weakly, but he couldn't even manage an attack. "No..." muttered the trainer. "Hector, don't... Just flee for your life!"

"Never!" growled Hector, "I won't leave you behind!"

"If you stand between Team Plasma and its enemies, you'll receive the same fate!" snapped the grunt.

"No, please!" cried the trainer. "Do with me what you want, but let Hector live, I beg you!"

"Probopass!" the grunt ordered. "Finish them with Stone Edge!"

Large, sharp stones pelleted both Hector and his trainer. They cried out briefly, then fell silent. The grunt laughed. "That's the third of these pests we caught this week!"

Another fell in as they walked off. "Yeah, we're getting really good at this. I bet if we continue this, the war'll be won with another month."

Celebrating their victory as they walked off, they left Aqua - still paralysed with shock - looking at the battlefield. She could barely believed what she had just witnessed. The callousness with which the grunts had extinguished five lives had shocked her deeply, as had her own inaction. The thought of helping hadn't even entered her mind until it was too late. After standing there for who knows how long, her legs began trembling wildly and she collapsed, sobbing softly. "I.. I am a coward..." she cried. "I could've helped them... MADE A DAMN DIFFERENCE!" She could've taken Plasma completely by surprise. She could've hit them and all their pokémon with a surprise Surf or Scald from their flanks. Most of their pokémon had been rock or fire types. Or she could at least have extinguished the poor Exeggutor. "I hope you're happy now," she said witheringly to herself. "You've kept your precious neutrality up once again."

–

Boreas tried to wait for the perfect moment to talk to Octa. Apologising to Lucius and Selene had been hard enough, especially to the rather confrontational Lucius, but at least they had already known about the incident that he needed to apologise for. Though Selene still seemed a bit scared of him, she had accepted his apology, and he had let her sit on his shoulder for most of the day, which had been a convenient excuse not to talk to Octa. But now she was gone, and evening was nearing. Soon they'd settle down, and then there'd be someone overhearing what he said at any time. No, he needed to talk to Octa now, while the only person near was Black.

He took a deep breath and walked next to his friend. "Octa, I need to tell you something." he felt his hair try to stand on edge, which it didn't manage only because of its considerable length.

Octa looked at him with his intelligent brown eyes and gave a little smile, which disappeared when he saw the distressed look on Boreas' face. "Oh?" When Boreas was silent for a bit trying to collect the courage to actually tell him and trying to find a place to start, he added: "What is it, my dear fellow?"

"I..." Boreas took another deep breath. "Remember back on Route 10? When I was saying goodbye to Aqua and we got into a bit of an argument?"

"Yes..." Octa frowned concernedly.

"Well... You told me to go after her and apologise... And I..." Boreas looked away in shame. "I... Well... I- I messed up, Octa. I... Was too prideful... Too angry... Too childish. I lied to you. I didn't go after her... I- I just sat down as soon as I was out of sight... And I lied about it to my friends... I am an idiot..."

It was silent for a moment. Boreas didn't dare look at Octa, keeping his eyes firmly down on the rocky path. Suddenly, he was enveloped in a tight hug in Octa's coils. He looked at his friend in surprise. "Oh, my dear fellow, I couldn't agree more. That was a very stupid action... No wonder you have been so upset lately. I blame myself for this, really... I know how you get when you get emotional... I should have followed you and made sure you spoke to Aqua."

Boreas, who had been expecting a stern response, hugged Octa back in surprise. "It's not your fault, really, my friend. I should've listened to you. As usual, you were the voice of reason, and I was too stubborn to accept it. It's ridiculous, really: I'm twenty months old, and I'm still acting like a newly-hatched Eevee. Feeling like it too..."

"It's not that odd, my dear fellow. Twenty months is still quite young."

Boreas chuckled. "For a Serperior, perhaps, but not for us Eevees. Many of us already have cubs when they're my age. I couldn't imagine raising cubs; I still feel like I still am one myself."

"Let me tell you a secret, my dear fellow: almost every adult, no matter how old, feels like they really are still a cub within. I suppose being adult is mainly a matter of playing one. And telling this to me is at least a step in the right direction. I am disappointed you lied to me, but I shall forgive you for it... As you have clearly suffered enough for it already."

Black, who had stopped as his pokémon hugged, petted Boreas' head. "Sorry to hear about that, little buddy. I hope she'll forgive you when you apologise to her."

Boreas and Octa looked up at him in amazement. "You... You understood me?" Boreas gasped.

"It's Wednesday, actually," said Black, looking surprised.

"Back to his normal form," muttered Octa. "Still, old chap, I believe you are actually making progress."

"I hope you're right, Octa; I hope Boreas will make progress. But I'm sure you will, little buddy, you and that Vaporeon are very close. She won't give up on you."

"Uh..." mumbled Boreas, "I hope you're right. Thanks for the confidence."

Octa let go of Boreas and they walked on, talking amicably. Boreas felt like a great weight had been lifted off his chest. When the evening fell, they came to a rocky plateau with a small lake leading to a pass between two peaks. Crossing the plateau, suddenly a familiar voice echoed through the plateau. "I wouldn't enter that pass, if I were you."

As Boreas looked around for the source of the voice, Diego and a couple of other pokémon emerged from behind the rocks.

–

AUTHOR'S NOTES: It's not often I ask your opinion on future events of the story, but this is one. You see, as this chapter has mentioned several times, Boreas is growing older (for a Glaceon; I have been portraying them having a life cycle similar to that of foxes, as they're based on them). One way I have been considering having his growing up show is having him grow a beard. Now, I know he already has fur on his face, so my thought was that it would rather be a darker pattern in his facial fur. (much like Puss in Boots has a light beard-like pattern in his fur in the Shrek films and their awesome spin-off bearing his name) I'm not so much asking whether you'd like this change, but more whether you'd think it would be completely ridiculous.

Also, it seems I'm done with chapter sixty, and passed 200000 words last chapter. The end of the fic is getting very near. It's a curious feeling.

FEEDBACK: A: Only three reviews for last chapter? That's a shame, I guess the long hiatuses must've cost me readers.

Okami Saphira: Q: First of all, I can't believe what Boreas said to Aqua... If he truly loves her, he should've went and apologized... I really hope that Boreas regrets what he said to Aqua, that was extremly selfish of him.

A: Yeah, it was. He was being a selfish idiot once again, and regrets it severely.

The Bulbafinatic: Q: I have a feeling that something is going to happen. Something really huge, alot bigger than trainer and wild pokémon battles...

A: Given that we don't have many chapters left before the end, I can confirm you're completely right there.

Q: Black has another open slot on his team. Could it be that Reshiram is going to show up soon?

A: Maybe.

Sonosublime: Q: it was a nice touch with all the gym battle flashbacks.

A: Thanks, I'm glad you liked them. Some people seemed to dislike them, but most of the response has been positive.

Q: I look forward to seeing where you go with this, it's too much of an epic story to abandon.

A: I don't want to abandon it either, and I do like writing it. It's very likely we'll see it reach the end.

Q: My advice is that if you're having writing block, just give it a break for a bit. But not too long, as you will lose motivation. Personally I find that just sitting down and writing with no clue of where I'm going manages to produce some decent chapters.

A: I did take a break for quite a while, but unfortunately it's the motivation that's the problem more than the lack of ideas. But it's getting better now, as the fact that this was done within three weeks shows, and if what I've planned for part ten and the rest of part nine manages to get my motivation back enough I might be able to return to the old once or twice a week updates. No promises, though.


	61. Strange Bedfellows

Chapter Sixty-One: Strange Bedfellows

Boreas growled as he and Black's other pokémon took up defensive positions. "You can't threaten us, Diego! If you want us to stop, you'll have to force us!"

"I wasn't threatening you," said the Zoroark bitterly. "It was a warning. Don't go onto that pass if you don't fancy a painful death."

Only then did Boreas see Diego was wounded, as were the other pokémon. Which was perfect in his eyes, as he might finally have a chance to defeat the Zoroark in this state. "What do you mean?" Octa asked, his Leaf Blade drawn.

"Don't encourage him, Octa," said Boreas, "we shouldn't let him trick us with whatever he's plotting!"

"I'm not planning anything, Boreas," said Diego. "I'm warning you. A Hydreigon and its kin hunt for prey on that pass. They attacked us when we tried to get though. Most of us made it, but not Zzlyxy. A Galvantula," he added.

"You have my compassion for your loss... And my gratitude for your warning," said Octa cautiously.

"Octa!" Boreas snapped, "it's just a trick! His last trick cost you your uncle and his children, remember?"

"My dear fellow," hissed Octa, "this is not the time to let only our well-justified hatred for him speak. We have to consider his words, for they are quite plausible. Besides, their wounds seem to indicate he's speaking the truth."

"It's an illusion," said Boreas darkly. "The only wound he has is in his twisted mind, in place of a conscience. Fortunately, there is a cure for that; it involves an Ice Beam applied directly to the face for about half a minute..."

"A pleasure to see you again too, Boreas," sneered Diego sarcastically. "But why don't we delay the inevitable moment when I snap your neck until we reach the League? If we fought each other here, there's no chance the survivors would get across that pass alive. So why don't we call an armistice and discuss our options?"

"The only reason you'd call for an armistice is so you can cut our throats while we don't expect it," snapped Boreas.

"My dear fellow," Octa interrupted sternly, "this choice is not just yours. Methinks we should accept the armistice and listen to what they have to say. However," he said to Diego, "I shall negotiate with N only, not with you. I will want to touch him to make sure he's not an illusion. And, my dear fellow, I want you to remain alert for treason, especially from Diego, at all times."

"Fine," muttered Boreas, already watching Diego for the merest sign of treachery to strike.

"He's not the only one who'll be watching them," grumbled Lucius. "I say it's a waste of time to negotiate with Plasma. But if you have to, go ahead. But I'll incinerate them at the first sign of trouble."

"N has been wounded," said Diego, "so you can talk to me instead. N trusts me completely."

"I'm sure he does, but I do not," Octa refused. "I share Boreas' distrust of you for your past actions. The only way I would talk to you is under the assumption every work you speak is a lie. So please take us to N."

"Fine. If you want to talk to him, you'll have to follow us."

Very cautiously, Boreas and the others followed N's pokémon. Aside from Diego, there were an Archeops, a Carracosta, a Klinklang, and a Vanilluxe. They led them around several large rocks until they reached N. He was indeed wounded: his arm in a dirty sling and large purple bruises on his head, aside from several more wounds. He sat up straight when he saw them. "Ah, they caught up with us?" he asked Diego.

"Yes, they did," said Diego. "They only wanted to talk to you, however, though I assured them I had your trust."

Octa immediately extended his hand to shake N's. "N, 'tis moderately pleasant to see you once again."

Boreas kept his body very far below zero as he prepared a Blizzard to hit Diego with when his trick was exposed the moment N shook Octa's hand. However, when N actually did take Octa's hand, Boreas saw Octa quickly feel each of the fingers. He nodded to Boreas to assure him it was unmistakably a human hand, and Boreas let himself relax a little. He doubted Diego would betray the cease-fire while N could see him. Though he did keep an eye on the Zoroark. "Nice to see you all too," said N. "I'm sure Diego told you exactly what happened to us, so do you want to help?"

Black chuckled nervously. "Well, I can't really understand what he was saying, I mean, he's a pokémon."

N gave him a pitying look. "It's so sad how you humans just can't understand us pokémon... Fortunately, you can understand me, because I was born in the form of a human. This is-"

Black interrupted him. "You think you're a pokémon?"

"Of course," said N, as if he had been asked whether the world was round. "How else could I speak to them? That's something no human can do."

"That's not true," said Black, "humans who spend enough time with their pokémon and know them well, pokémon masters and such, can understand pokémon too."

"Nonsense. If that were true, Ghetsis and the other Sages could do it, as they're the greatest pokémon masters in the world."

"They can," Boreas interjected. "And so can Alder. Drayden could do it too, and I bet other powerful trainers as well. Black's been trying it too, and has actually been making a little progress."

"Thank you," Black nodded.

N looked at Diego. "They're trying to distract you," said Diego. "It's neither true nor relevant."

"He's lying, N!" snapped Boreas.

N frowned angrily. "Diego would never lie to me! Only humans lie, how dare you suggest my best friend would lie to me!" he took a deep breath. "Now let's get to business. When we first entered this plateau a few days ago, we just walked on to that pass. But we were attacked by Deinos and Zweilouses, which were led by a Hydreigon. I tried to talk to them, but they wouldn't listen. When they attacked... There were a lot of them, and the Hydreigon was very powerful. They devoured Zzlyxy as we fled... Even Zekrom only managed to hold them back for a short while."

"I'm sorry to hear that," said Black. "I know what it's like to lose a pokémon, it really hurts terribly."

"She wasn't my pokémon," said N, "but my friend. That is much worse. But, since neither of us can get past the pass on our own, I think we should try it together."

"What, you and me teaming up?" Black asked in surprise. "Well... I guess if that's the only way we're going to get through Victory Road, we should. But after we pass the Hydreigon, it's every man and 'mon for themselves."

"That makes sense," said N, "after all, though we are both heroes, we have opposite goals. I seek an ideal world, you seek the truth."

"N, I'm not a hero and I don't seek the truth," Black sighed. "All I want to do is stop your Team Plasma from causing even more damage than they already did."

"If you don't accept your role as the hero, Reshiram will never recognise you as Zekrom has recognised me. Then you certainly won't be able to stop me."

"Then I'll stop you with my own pokémon!" snapped Black.

"You will fail," stated N.

"You don't know that!" snapped Black.

"Of course I do; the legends say the only ones who can defeat the hero and his dragon is the other hero and his dragon."

Toxica interrupted Black's response to that. "Look! If you two are going to fight each other instead of that Hydreigon, we'll never get anywhere. Let's settle it at the League."

"She's right," said N, "we can't fight here; this is Victory Road. We'll see who is right at the League. Now let me describe to you exactly what that pass looks like so we can stand a better chance at getting through..."

Boreas had already resigned to the alliance's necessity. While he was determined not to believe anything Diego said, he knew N was at least somewhat trustworthy. He didn't mind allying with the human and most of his pokémon, but he did mind the thought of fighting alongside Diego. When he thought of all the things the Zoroark had done, Boreas only wanted to kill him. He didn't really listen to N's description, focussing instead on keeping an eye on Diego. When the Zoroark approached him, he was ready to fight in an instant.

"Don't look so alarmed, Boreas, I'm just here for a friendly chat. After all, it seems we're once again on the same side."

"We've never been on the same side," growled Boreas.

"I was your brother for two months, remember?" said Diego with a grin.

Boreas trembled with fury, but struggled to keep calm; undoubtedly Diego was just trying to get him to break the cease-fire. "You desecrated my brother's memory, you mean. We weren't on the same side, your very presence was both an insult and an injury." Boreas would never admit it, but when he thought of Zeph, a cheekily grinning Flareon came to mind, not the Eevee he really had been. It made it even worse, as if Diego had stolen his brother from him.

"Well, like it or not, I was your brother for a longer time than he ever lived in reality. And, you know, having most of your early memories makes me realise why you act like this, so I'll forgive you."

"Keep your forgiveness!" Boreas spat angrily, "I don't want it!"

"We're allies now, you've got to let go of petty anger."

"Petty anger? It's nothing short of major psychotic loathing, Diego! You turned Aqua against me and tried to murder her! You desecrated the memory of my brother and you nearly killed Octa! You hung me up by my tail and you broke my leg! Death is too good for you, you heartless monstrosity, but it's exactly what I'll give you!"

Diego shrugged. "You're an enemy of Team Plasma; I'd never have done any of that if it wasn't for the war. These things happen. But you're clearly not in a talking or forgiving mood."

He turned around and walked away to listen to the plans. His back formed a tantalisingly attractive target for Boreas. He could fire his strongest Ice Beam at the top of Diego's neck; paralyse his entire body for a while by freezing his nerves. The bastard would fall on the ground, and Boreas could be upon him within a second, digging his claws in. He would place his paws on the Zoroark's head and quickly unleash several powerful pulses of cold through his brain. Diego would be severely wounded before anyone could stop Boreas; and in the middle of these mountains, he'd probably never recover. Boreas found himself having cooled his body down, ready to do what he'd sworn to do a year ago. The cold from his body collected in a single point... And dissipated.

He was so very close to killing Diego, but had managed to hold himself back. He had seen N's reaction to even the suggestion Diego was lying; lethally injuring him would instantly end the alliance. And then they could never get past the Hydreigon; Team Plasma's darkness would descend over Unova. Trembling with fury and hate, he slowly calmed himself down by forcing himself to breathe calmly. He felt a hand on his shoulder and angrily turned at it, only to discover it was Octa's. "Are you alright, my dear fellow?" he asked softly.

Boreas smiled. "Yeah, I am. In fact, you should be proud of me: I kept my anger under control just now."

Octa raised an eyebrow. "It didn't sound like it to me."

"Believe me, it was. He's still alive, you see." _But won't be for much longer..._ he added in his mind. Because once they were through the pass, there was no reason not to kill Diego. In fact, it would feel very good to finally get rid of him.

–

Aqua wasn't sure she was doing a wise thing as she sneaked through the station. But she knew she had to try. Seeing the trainer and her pokémon be murdered had finally opened her eyes. Team Plasma was evil, there was no other word for it. She had known these things were happening, she should've seen how horrid they were earlier, but somehow they hadn't seemed real and serious until she had seen it happen herself. She could curse at herself for helping Plasma for so long, standing by idly while good people died, and even fighting on Plasma's side, but what was done was done. She should repair their damage as best as she could.

Strangely, she still agreed with them on their core issues. While there were some decent humans, most of them should stay away from pokémon; overall they probably did more harm than good. But the very first among those bad humans were surely Team Plasma. Once they were defeated, she could try and get others to release their pokémon, if there were any trainers left. For now, her place was with Boreas, against Plasma; bizarre though the thought of fighting on the side of the trainers was.

She had considered trying to overtake him the moment she realised this, of course, but it was obvious there was no way she was going to catch up. Not from this side of Victory Road at least... That was why she was trying to sneak onto a train to the League, so she could come from the other side and join them for the final bit of the journey. It made more sense to just wait at the League... But it felt better to join them, even if only for a bit.

So she now sneaked around the station, trying to board the train north without being found, as it would be assumed she was a trainer's pokémon if anyone saw her. Not surprisingly, the train to the Pokémon League was under extra scrutiny. There didn't seem to be any passengers boarding the train, only some food and other supplies being loaded on it, yet a bunch of Plasma grunts stood on the platform, guarding it. It was quite obvious to Aqua she was not going to get in easily, and fighting all of them would be quite impossible. She knew a trick, but she needed a source of water for it.

She sneaked into the bathroom and turned on all faucets; not an easy feat without opposable thumbs. With the water flowing, she commanded it to follow her as a small river behind her. She hid behind some supplies once again, and had the stream flow onto the platform; making the shape of a Vaporeon's head made of water rise out of it. The startled guards, looking at it in the weak light, immediately sent out their pokémon. She made the river and the fake Vaporeon quickly flow away, drawing the guards with it. She ran into the train's door as soon as she could and hid under a chair. She chuckled at her successful use of the trick that had led people to believe Vaporeons could melt into water; by now the guards would be looking at just a big puddle of water with stupid looks on their faces.

–

The pass was deathly quiet as they walked through it. The tall slopes of the peaks on either side were very steep and rocky and had several caves in them from which the enemy could come at any moment. But as far as Boreas was concerned, the enemy was right here. He made sure not to turn his back on Diego for an instant. He assumed Diego was planning to kill him as well; he'd have to be quicker about it.

A sense of awe and fierce, electrifying ideals flashed over Boreas as N released Zekrom from its pokéball. A beautiful image of a world where pokémon were free from humans filled his mind. He saw the perfection of pokémon compared to humans, who couldn't even understand what pokémon said. He had never been so proud to be a pokémon, and he longed to be liberated... But why wait? He was clearly powerful enough to liberate himself, and help make a world for liberated pokémon...

Then he remembered what Team Plasma's ideal world really looked like. He remembered his friendship with Black and quickly shook those strange thoughts off. "Yikes, no wonder they're winning," he said in surprise. He saw similar thoughts temporarily in his friends' faces, even in Black.

N smiled. "You just felt the full force of Zekrom's ideals; my ideals. Now, perhaps, you understand my cause... Or at least why I normally keep Zekrom inside its pokéball."

"Yeah..." replied Boreas. "Having that constantly happen to anyone near..."

"That, and it exhausts quickly. It seems it's hard for it to keep up its passion for an ideal world for extended times... It told me it prefers being in its pokéball while travelling... So strange."

"Yeah, that is weird..." said Boreas, surprised he was having a chat with N now.

After some silence, N said: "By the way, my condolences for your loss... It must feel so bad, losing her like that..."

"Huh? Losing whom like what?"

N looked at him as if he was insane. "Aqua? You know, she got killed by trainers the day I awoke Zekrom?"

Boreas laughed coldly. "Is that what Diego has told you?"

"Ghetsis told me the tragic news... Then Diego later gave it in more detail."

"They lied. Aqua is alive and well. The only one who tried to kill her was Diego himself; he betrayed her and tried to kill her by breaking her-"

"That's not true!" snapped N, furiously, and Zekrom's tail flared with blue light as it crackled with electricity. "They would never lie to me, and Diego certainly wouldn't try to kill Aqua!"

"Oh, I'm sorry for believing what I saw with my own eyes! She was in the pokécenter for weeks!"

"You're lying! You-"

N's words ended as the dragons attacked. They suddenly came down the slopes on both sides. Boreas, with a reaction that surprised himself with speed, had Ice Beamed two of the Deinos down a second later.

"Hold on!" shouted N. "There's no need to attack us! Please, stop, we can talk this out instead!"

The dragons didn't heed his words, as Boreas expected. "They only see us as food, they're not going to negotiate with us!" he pointed out as he fired more Ice Beams. "We either win or we die; they're going to be as merciless as your big friend Diego."

N said something, but a loud roar as the Hydreigon swooped down and huge, crackling bolts of electricity blasted from Zekrom drowned him out. Boreas found himself fighting in the midst of N's pokémon. It allowed him to observe their battle styles, which would come in handy at the League or later today after he'd killed Diego, but it was also a problem, as it meant he couldn't trust his allies to protect him.

It had been easy enough taking out Deinos from a distance with Ice Beams, but it was a lot more dangerous once they reached the pass and could strike back. But the Deinos weren't really the problem; the Hydreigon was very dangerous, striking with enormously powerful attacks from each of its heads. Fortunately, N had the sense to tell Zekrom to battle it.

But even the Zweilouses were powerful enough opponents to keep them very busy. Boreas was soon enveloped in battle with one of the two-headed dragons, exchanging ice and dragon fire between them as both heads snapped at Boreas and tried to bite him. A couple of Deinos flocked around them and attacked Boreas too, which was a bigger problem; he thought he could probably best the Zweilous, given some time, as the scaly skin and ectothermic bodies of dragon-types couldn't handle cold well, but with all the Deinos attacking as well he could easily be overwhelmed. He considered making a Blizzard around him to take them all down, but the intense amount of energy that would cost would leave him too open for any other enemies, not to mention Diego.

But he did need to stop them from attacking him. A poorly executed attempt to bite him from the Deino on his left was just what he needed. As the creature stuck out its neck in a clumsy attempt to bite Boreas, he grabbed it with one paw on the head and one on the neck. He blasted a pulse of cold from each paw while digging his claws into the opponent, giving a strong yank. His enemy stumbled and fell past him, against another Deino, and Boreas Ice Beamed them both once more. He hoped the Deino was unconscious, not dead, but in either case the others would think twice before attacking him now.

He had only a moment to react to the double blast of fire from the mouths of the Zweilous, jumping out of the way clumsily and quickly folding his tail up. He landed poorly, hurting his front legs, and felt searing heat just behind his bum; if he hadn't retracted his tail he would probably have lost another part of it. He got up, jumped out of the way of his opponent's jaws, and struck back with a gust of snow and hail.

The battle was going well: his opponent was enraged and shivering and about to make a mistake, as Boreas saw its two heads about to try a bite attack almost as clumsy as the Deino's; which was fine with Boreas, as he could respond in a similar fashion. But just at the wrong moment, as he had already begun his counterattack, a sharp pain shot through Boreas' tail as one of the Deinos had the courage to attack him after all. Even during his startled reaction of pain, he knew it was a bad mistake, as his counterattack had been disturbed and misaimed. He tried to dodge his enemy's jaws instead of counterattacking, but he couldn't avert his momentum any more.

A white light of severe pain flashed through Boreas' head as his right eye erupted in agony, the entire side of his forehead struck by the Zweilous' razor-sharp teeth. He blasted his opponent with a pulse of cold and tried to keep his distance again. But he felt blood flowing through the fur on his face, and he couldn't see anything with the eye. He was dizzy and nauseous with pain, losing blood fast, and having trouble seeing well with only one eye.

He struggled to try and dodge or parry the Zweilous' further attacks, but it was futile. The Deinos around him has been encouraged by his wound and were attacking together. He groaned in agony, but couldn't give up. He unleashed cold from his body, making the air flow rapidly and cool down around him. It went faster and faster, and he heard the Deinos whimpering around him.

Suddenly, pain filled his entire mind, even worse pain than he was already in. His right hind leg burned with agony, and Boreas was only vaguely aware his Blizzard had stopped. He couldn't think of anything but the pain right now, and only with much effort was he able to open his tear-filled eye and look at the leg. "Oh no, not again..." he groaned, seeing it was twisted in a very weird angle.

He couldn't do a thing, crushed with pain. He tried to escape, but the Zweilous was about to finish him off. A beam of darkness hit both its heads and knocked it away from him. "Lucius?" Boreas groaned weakly.

"Guess again," said a hated voice as Diego attacked the Zweilous with his claws and dark attacks.

While Boreas' body most wanted to curl up and whimper in pain, he said: "Diego? Why- why are you doing this?"

"Because you obviously can't fight for yourself," he said, "and you're my ally at the moment. You'd do the same for me, after all."

"What's your game, Diego? Lure me into a false sense of security, only to murder me in my sleep?"

Diego laughed as the dragons began retreating. "If I wanted to murder you, I could easily do it right now and claim the Zweilous got you."

"How comforting..." muttered Boreas as he closed his eye in pain, guilt pressing on him. He tried to shake it off, but the thought that he had been plotting to kill Diego while Diego saved his life was not a pleasant one.

–

Boreas was in a very bad mood as Black cleaned his eye and forehead with a wet towel. N and his team had left soon after the attack, as none of them had been seriously wounded. Boreas had been too weak and felt too guilty by Diego saving him to carry out his plan to kill the Zoroark. He felt doubly bad now, both because Diego was still alive and because he had plotted to kill him, which Diego had repaid by saving him. But why?

Boreas wasn't quite sure whether he'd rather consider that question or think about his eye. Losing the tip of his tail had been bad enough, but an eye? Not only did the world look flat and ugly in his single working eye, but it was even more prominent an injury than the tail. He could already imagine the eyes of any person he talked to being drawn to his right eye, which would probably end up creepy, white and blind. He could imagine awkward silences falling when someone invited him to speak under four eyes, and the fact that to everyone he would be "that one-eyed Glaceon." The next time he saw Aqua, she would look like a picture of her; flat and missing a certain living quality. And she might very well be disgusted by her creepy, blind eye. She had always liked his eyes... He wondered if she would ever look into them as she had again.

Sighing glumly, he decided he'd rather probe the question of Diego's kindness than his one-eyed future after all. It could only be a trick... In fact, there was suspicious similarity between Zeph "saving" him on Dragonspiral Tower and this. Could there have been illusions at work this time as well? Maybe the dragons had all been an illusion, and it was just Diego wounding him? But that was impossible; his friends had fought the dragons as well, and he had heard their sounds and the sounds of battle as well. Maybe he had told them to attack? But what could be the point of that? No-one had joined their team this time. Unless... Boreas wondered if Diego might've used the chaos of battle to quietly kill one of his friends and replace them, masking himself with an illusion. He would have to touch each of them to make sure, but it didn't seem very likely, as they had all fought close to each other, where they could see one another. Maybe he had just been trying to win Boreas' trust? But what would be the use of that? In any case, he did not have it.

The thought that perhaps Diego's motives were just as friendly as they seemed was a scary, and fortunately impossible one. Diego had tormented him for a year now. There couldn't possibly be any true kindness in him. Yet, Boreas had truly loved his illusion as a brother, and all that time Diego had expertly pretended to be a kind, good person. Could a truly evil person really keep up such pretence for so long, or had Diego let out his deeply-buried good side? Boreas could almost believe it, until he remembered what had happened to Aqua when she had trusted him. He clenched his teeth with hatred; maybe he could forgive the things Diego had done to him if the Zoroark worked very hard to earn his forgiveness, but he would never forgive _that_. Yet, despite the unforgivable things Diego had done, could there really be a spark of light in his dark heart?

Black interrupted his train of thought. "There, I'm done. We'll keep your head bandaged for the next few weeks; after that the eye should be as good as new and the wound will be only a scar."

"Huh?" Boreas wondered whether he had heard it correctly. "My eye... Is going to heal?"

"You knew your eye was mostly alright? Well, I didn't; it really looked as if the eye was damaged badly. Fortunately, the attack mainly hit your forehead, making a very deep cut there, which is where all the blood really came from; it just flowed into your eye, which probably also meant you couldn't see a thing with it. But the eye itself has really only been hit very lightly. As for your leg, that will take some more time to heal, but..."

Black said more, but Boreas didn't listen to him. Ecstatically happy he hadn't lost his eye, he hugged Black. The world suddenly seemed a lot brighter with this spot of hope restored.

–

AUTHOR'S NOTES: I drew Boreas once again; you can see a downscaled version of the portrait as the story's image, but here's the full version: apenpaap dot deviantart dot com/art/Boreas-312193665 . It's not quite as he looks right now, but what he'll look like in part ten. You may be wondering about the beard; it's essentially somewhat longer fur that colours darker blue at some point; the reason most Glaceons don't have this is likely that they keep this fur short.

I considered having Boreas actually lose the eye. In fact, I had it planned. But I just felt I was hurting the poor guy too much, so he gets to keep the eye.

FEEDBACK: Guardian54: Q: Personally, I think a beard would look foolish.

A: That's a shame, really.

Q: Also, basing Eeveelutions on our reality's foxes? With how rare elemetal stones are, we wouldn't see any Flareons, Vaporeons or Jolteons, if their life spans are so short.

A: I think you may need to reread chapter 22, where Aqua explains how Eevees evolve in the wild. ;) But I'm also not making their lifespans equally short; not only do I like them too much to have them die after 6-10 years, but certain things in the fic wouldn't work like that. There's Diego, for example, who raised N, yet is also a fox. I'm only strictly adhering to a fox's life cycle for the 'growing up' part of it, not the 'growing old' one. I'm not sure how old Eevees get in my universe, but count on it being at least 20-30 years.

Q: On the other hand, maybe making Pokemon genetically essentially immortal in my own writing was also rather extreme. It seems both of us decided to take things to the limits... though I think much of it is how I rendered the health/status system compared to how you rendered it.

A: It does indeed seem rather extreme to make pokémon essentially immortal (whether you mean immune to ageing or completely immortal). One reason why I don't think I'd ever do that is because most of the people who will be reading my story are humans; and they grow old and die. Therefore a character that does the same generally seems more relatable and closer to both reader and writer. There's also the problem that complete immortality would be intensely boring in the long run.


	62. Lost in the Black Mountains

Chapter Sixty-Two: Lost in the Black Mountains

The journey over Victory Road was hard enough with four good legs and two good eyes; with one leg in a cast and one eye covered up to help it and the wound in his forehead heal it was even worse. Yet Boreas couldn't just sit out the journey in his pokéball either; his friends needed him in the frozen landscape, which was getting colder day by day. Even with his broken leg he still had the easiest time with the cold and the ice, and walked on top of the layer of snow with relative ease while his friends struggled through it. He had to scout ahead, try and find the easiest paths through snow and ice for them, and forage what little food there was to find. His innate feeling for the structure of ice helped them avoid dangerous spots and avalanches. The only times he was returned to his pokéball was when they had a particularly difficult climb or descent to do.

On snowless days they often found the tracks of N and his pokémon, and when they were about to head into a dale they could sometimes see them deep down already in it. They didn't manage to catch up, however, and in fact saw less and less of them as September turned to October. Boreas preferred it this way, as the sight of Diego or his tracks made him wonder how different they really were from each other. Diego rescuing Boreas while he had been plotting the Zoroark's death and would probably have just watched and laughed if he was about to be mauled to death hadn't really improved his opinion of himself. He had felt a lot better after apologising to Selene, but now he wondered again whether they were really so different.

He wondered now if Diego's parents were still alive, and what they thought of him... Were they proud of their son? Did they disapprove of him? Did they lose contact ages ago? Did they get killed by humans, pushing Diego into Team Plasma out of revenge? How would Boreas' parents think of him if they were still alive? He had always assumed they would probably be proud of him, but would they really be proud of someone who had been plotting an ally's death in cold blood?

_Then again,_ he thought, _I shouldn't lose perspective. I was planning Diego's death, not that of a real ally, or even a temporary one. He's my enemy, no matter what._

_But what if he isn't? Maybe he really isn't that bad. He did save my life when I would've watched him die._

Boreas still couldn't think of a proper explanation for Diego rescuing him. None of his friends had been replaced, he had made sure of that, and the battle didn't seem to have had any other use either. Except for Boreas' complete confusion. Could Diego have been planning this? Maybe he had only saved Boreas because he knew it would confuse him to no end. Or perhaps it was part of some future plan, and the Zoroark only wanted him to think he had become a better person?

Boreas sighed in frustration. Finding out the motives of an enemy as cunning as Diego was like trying to hold a slippery eel. He didn't know whether to feel guilty, angry, cautious, or something else now. If Diego was planning something, then relenting in his desire to kill him could prove a fatal mistake. But on the other hand, could Boreas kill him while there was even a chance he wasn't as bad as he seemed? If, despite all the horrid things he'd done, there was some good in him? It was easy to just consider the fact that he'd sworn to kill Diego as a settling argument, but Boreas wasn't going to take the easy way out and hide behind oaths. In the end, he had a choice to make. Was it a worse oversight to let a villain live to cause more harm in the future or to kill someone who might be a decent person, no matter how unlikely that was?

Boreas didn't know the answer, but he finally decided he wouldn't need to commit either mistake. He just didn't have enough information to make his choice, so he would wait. And when the time came that he had to make a choice, he would hopefully know enough to do the right thing.

So as they continued through the increasingly barren landscape, he tried not to think about it, and his thoughts turned to Aqua. Did she miss him as badly as he missed her? Had she given him up completely after their fight? Would he ever see her again? Boreas missed everything about her terribly. Most of all, he just wanted to hold her and tell her how sorry he was for his selfishness and that he loved her more than he loved anything else in the world. He didn't want to waste another minute of his life not being with her.

The problem with Victory Road was that he had far too much time to think. It seemed there would never come an end to the mountains. The rough, wild landscape was exciting, and it was always great to see what was behind the next row of mountains, but he really wanted to get to the League soon to try and find Aqua and defeat N. He tried to talk to his friends a lot to stop the endlessly pouring thoughts, but even the floods of words Octa and Toxica could produce didn't help much to take his mind off things. Besides, their love troubles reminded Boreas of his own. Though at least neither Aqua nor he had a family as troublesome as Octa's. They still hadn't accepted Octa and Toxica being together, though they tolerated it for the moment. Boreas wondered what Toxica would have to do to be accepted. Maybe there was noting she could do, maybe Octa's family was too stuck in their ways and traditions ever to accept her. On a certain level, he actually found himself hoping that.

And so October slowly crawled past. As November came, winter had truly started. Blizzards were frequent, and even when it was clear the cold was amazing. The days were short and dark, with the Sun hardly ever rising above the mountains, and the nights were endlessly long, dark as a dungeon, and very, very cold. Yet in these dark days, Boreas found happy tidings as Black finally removed the bandage from his eye.

"There," he said with a smile as he cleaned Boreas' fur where the bandage has been, "the eye and the wound are both looking well. Can you see?"

Boreas looked around in wonder. Everything looked much brighter and strangely reddish in his right eye. "Everything is so bright..."

"That's because your eye has been covered up for weeks, it's completely adjusted to the dark. Give it some time."

Boreas found the bright, unfocussed ghost image the second eye added to his vision very disorienting, used as he was to seeing with one eye by now. But of course his second eye quickly went from annoying to useful as he relearned how to use both eyes again. Seeing the world in three dimensions gave him more happiness and hope than he'd had for a while. They were nearing the League by now anyway.

A week later, after making their way through harsh, rocky terrain and fighting their way past a whole nest of Durants, Black removed the cast on his leg as well. Unlike the bandage for his eye, this didn't cheer Boreas up. While his leg now had more freedom to move, this made him feel how weak and painful it was by now. He had to push himself hard not to slow his friends down on non-snowy terrain, and he frequently had to clench his teeth against pain from the leg when he put too much weight on it. Only the thought every step brought him closer to Aqua kept him going on some days.

He didn't realise how literally true this thought was until later. They had Painstakingly climbed up a mountain's side from the vale below for the past two days. Tall pines managed to grow between the rough rocks. By the end of the second day, every time Boreas pulled himself up on a rock he wondered when he would pass out from exhaustion. He cursed and muttered under his breath at the burning of his muscles and the stabs from his leg. Breathing labouredly, he finally reached a forested ridge where his friends were already resting from the long climb. He threw himself down in exhaustion once he reached it and tried to catch his breath on the lightly snow-covered ground.

"Something's coming!" hissed Selene. Everyone scrambled to their feet, though they barely had the energy left to stand. Boreas could see it too, now, a small figure in the dark forest of the ridge. As it approached, he noticed its attractive, finned form, and couldn't believe his eyes. It had to be an illusion, but when she spoke all doubt was removed.

"Hello guys," said a wonderful voice. "Glad to see you've made it this far."

Everyone was silent as they beheld the Vaporeon with surprise and wonder. "Aqua..." Boreas finally gasped. "It... It can't be you, not here... This is a dream..." Then he grinned. "And a good one too..."

Aqua frowned angrily. "Don't get your hopes up, I'm still furious for what you said!"

Boreas blushed in shame, realising it was the real Aqua. Now he desperately wanted to pounce her, hold her tightly, kiss her for minutes and only think about her the whole night. But her anger was entirely justified. "Oh... Sorry, I thought I was dreaming..." he said, feeling horrible. "I'm so sorry for the things I said. It was wrong of me to insist you come here with me... And especially to tell you it was what you would do if you really loved me. I was trying to use emotional blackmail on you, and it was the greatest mistake of my life."

Boreas cowered under the fierce look Aqua used to stare at him. "Yes, it was."

He felt heartbroken and horrid, and knew he deserved it. "Aqua, my love... Not a day has gone by when I haven't lamented the things I said as a farewell to you. Can you please forgive this selfish, childish bastard, though he can't even forgive himself and is not remotely deserving of the love of someone like you?" he begged with tears in his eyes, dreading the answer.

Aqua's harsh mask quivered and trembled. "Oh, Boreas... I shouldn't... But... I-I can't stay mad at you. I love you too much for it, despite everything..."

It was as if Boreas had been submerged in an ocean of happiness. "Thank you! Thank you so much, my love. I promise I'll never, ever say anything like that to you again. I'll never let you down again. I love you..."

Aqua looked at him with a loving smile before scraping her throat and looking at Black. "Ahem. Um, well, that was only part of the reason why I came here. You see, I've decided to join you. I want to help you defeat Team Plasma. I assume that sixth spot on the team is still open?"

"It is..." grinned Black. "And I'm sure Boreas will be glad you're joining."

"I am," said Boreas, his tail wagging uncontrollably with joy, "I really am. But what made you reconsider?"

"Yeah," said Lucius, "I'd like to know that too. It sounds a bit too convenient to me."

"What do you mean?" asked Boreas.

"I mean it looks like Plasma is once again using you to get a spy on our team, pup. We chased off your dear "brother," and now they landed another spy..."

"You take that back right now!" yelled Boreas. "Aqua is no spy!"

"Quit thinking with your dick, pup," sneered Lucius, "she's been on N's team, she's palled around with Diego, and you have the hots for her. She's the perfect spy."

Boreas was about to shout at Lucius again, but Octa interrupted him. "My dear fellow, I am sorry to say this, but he may have a point. No offence intended, Aqua."

Boreas calmed down hearing his best friend say it too. "Octa, I trust Aqua with far more than my life. She's no spy, she would never betray me."

"And look what she did with that sweet trust of yours in Chargestone Cave," sneered Lucius. "They say love blind; take it from me, pup, it's a waste of time and a recipe for disaster and disappointment."

Aqua's reply drowned out what Boreas had to say to that. "Listen, I know it sounds a bit suspicious, but I swear I haven't seen N since Diego attacked me at Dragonspiral Tower."

"It's true," added Boreas, with a foul look at Lucius, "N thought she was dead, because that's what Diego told him."

"What about Ghetsis? Or any other Plasma members? Or maybe she thought this up on her own."

"Shut up!" snapped Boreas. "She's not-"

"Boreas, please," interrupted Aqua. "It's understandable your friends don't trust me after I fought for N."

"Well," spoke Octa, "I do not distrust you. However, some evidence to back up your claims would help me trust you, as would an account of why you changed your mind."

Boreas saw sadness and guilt briefly flash through Aqua's eyes. "I'm sorry, Octa, but I really don't want to talk about it. And I can't give you any evidence other than my word."

"And mine," added Boreas. "I love and trust Aqua. If she says she's changed her mind and wants to join us, I believe her. I assure you, she's speaking the truth."

"Thank you, Boreas," said Aqua with a smile.

"Are you quite sure, my dear fellow? Is that not simply wishful thinking?"

Boreas looked Octa straight into the eyes, wanting to dismiss all doubt. "Octa, my friend, I've never been more certain of anything. I trust Aqua because I love her, and if you trust me as much, you should trust her as well."

Octa looked him in the eyes for a moment. "Alright, then. If you can earnestly tell me you trust her, I shall do the same."

"No!" snapped Lucius. "This is insane, we're not letting a spy on the team!"

"C'mon, Lucius," said Toxica, "Boreas is our friend, if he says we can trust her, I guess we should. Plus, she's a fun person to have around."

"Are you all stupid?! She's a spy, I'd bet anything!"

"C'mon, Boreas is our friend, can't you trust him?"

"It's not Boreas I'm having trouble trusting..."

"Look," said Black, "we need a sixth team member in any case, we stand little chance against the Elite Four with only five. I was planning to have it be Reshiram, but since I can't seem to awake it, we don't have much choice. Boreas' girlfriend has proven her skill and determination simply by getting here. As far as I'm concerned, she's welcome to join. Can't you give her a chance?"

Lucius growled. "Fine! One chance, and one chance only! But I'm warning you, missy, I'll keep my eye on you. And the moment I see you betray us, I'll-"

"You'll what?" Boreas interrupted angrily. It was bad enough to hear Lucius insult Aqua, hearing him threaten her was even worse.

"I'll give her exactly what traitors deserve," he said with a malevolent grin.

Boreas almost snapped out at Lucius, but took several deep breaths and looked into Aqua's eyes to calm himself down instead. He could swear he almost saw her wink at him. "She's no traitor, so it doesn't matter anyway."

"Thank you," said Aqua to everyone in general. "I won't let you down, I promise."

"You'd better not," mumbled Lucius.

"Hello, I'm Selene," said Selene as she landed on Aqua's shoulder.

"Yeah, I know. Hi, Selene, we met, remember?"

"Yes, I do. Hello."

"Anyway, Boreas," said Aqua, letting Selene fly away, "I think we have a lot to... talk about."

"Yeah, we do." Boreas agreed, missing neither the innuendo nor the serious part of the invitation. "Come on," he said as he walked off through the trees with her, looking for some privacy.

"Well, I suppose it was time to stop for today anyway..." he heard Black remark, but then they were too far away to hear more. They found a rough gully in the chilly forest on the ridge which seemed a good place to talk. Yet when they stood opposite each other there, they didn't know what to say. Boreas had already apologised and she had accepted it, so he didn't think he should start apologising again. He really wanted to kiss her, but could he just do that after all that had happened? It didn't seem like a good idea for now. He wanted to ask about what had changed her mind, but it seemed too heavy a subject to just begin talking about, since she had seemed so saddened by it.

"Hi," he said hollowly.

"Hi..." she piped nervously.

An awkward silence pressed hard on them like the air itself had grown thick as custard. Boreas tried to think of something to say as he looked into Aqua's face. She was still looking incredibly attractive to him, though somewhat rougher after so much time alone on Victory Road. He wanted to compliment her looks, but found that too impossible to say. He hadn't had such trouble talking to her since the first days he had known her.

"It's... It's wonderful to see you again," he finally managed to say.

Aqua nodded and smiled nervously. "Yeah..."

Boreas wasn't quite sure who had made the first move, but after a few more seconds, they were suddenly hugging each other tightly, lying on the ground. Boreas happily cuddled Aqua, relishing the feeling of having his paws around her and feeling her warm body pressed against his that he had had to miss for so long. He petted the soft fur on her back with love as she nuzzled his ears and hair.

"Oh, my love..." Aqua whispered. "I missed you so much."

"I missed you too... Let's never do that again."

"Fighting or parting for so long?" Aqua whispered as she petted through his hair and nuzzled his cheek.

"Both," said Boreas, nuzzling her finned ears, "I want to stay at your side forever, my love."

Their lips found each other with a kiss that filled their minds with love for each other like a hot air balloon is filled with air, keeping it warm and afloat. "I love you, Boreas..."

"I... I love you too, my brave Aqua... Coming all the way here just for me..." That remark had the effect he expected. He saw a flash of sadness on her formerly happy face. "Except you didn't, did you? There's more to it than just that."

Boreas hated making Aqua so sad, but he wanted to help her with whatever it was. "Yes... Yes, there was. I can tell you... But it's not a happy story, not something for a moment like this."

He gently hugged her as she lay on top of him. "It's always a good moment to help you. What happened?"

Slowly and with tears in her eyes, Aqua told him all about how she had gone south to Opelucid and witnessed the death of the trainer. She was sobbing on his shoulder by the time she was finished, while he tried to console her.

"I don't think you're to blame, my love... No-one would've reacted well when faced with that so suddenly after waking up in the middle of the night."

"I hadn't looked at it that way yet..." she said sadly.

He gently embraced her and stroked her face. "Well, then look at it that way. Besides, you're here now to help us make things better."

"You're right... But I know of someone who would've rescued them: you would have... I bet you would've saved them all."

"Heh, you give me too much credit. I would've probably stood by just as helplessly if that happened so suddenly."

"Of course you wouldn't have," Aqua said, winking her tears away as she grinned flirtatiously. "My brave, handsome hero would've saved them. I'm sure of it."

Boreas let himself be kissed by her, rather surprised. "Well, your mood changed quick. A moment ago you were in tears."

Aqua shrugged apologetically and stuck out her tongue. "What can I say? I've missed you for three months, and now I'm snuggled close to you. You can't blame me for wanting to do other things than crying."

Boreas grinned too. "Good idea. So... You were telling me about your brave, handsome hero?"

"That's right, I was," giggled Aqua as she stroked Boreas' chin and chest. "He's this brave, cunning Glaceon. He's very cute and sexy, with these piercing cyan eyes of his. I've been in love with him since the day we met, and now even more, though he's not the same Glaceon any more."

"I'm not?"

"No, you're not. You've changed a lot, both inside and out," she said while petting his face. "Fortunately the changes are improvements. Your face looks a lot more handsome and adult now, you've received some scars, and you've grown quite a fetching beard."

"I have?" blurted Boreas out in surprise. "I didn't know that was possible."

Aqua giggled as she caressed his lower jaw. "My silly Boreas, you've really spent too little time among your own kind. The fur on the lower jaw of male Eevees tends to grow longer than the rest and colour darker, much like the hair on your head. Most keep that fur short, but you haven't... And I've got to say it looks very good on you."

"Thanks," chuckled Boreas, "I'm definitely keeping it now."

"I was hoping you would, you look sexy," she said with a wink. "You also changed inside, you're a lot more mature now. Those things Lucius said would've gotten you angry enough to attack him a few months ago. You've become a much greater Glaceon, really."

Boreas considered telling her what had happened when they'd temporarily teamed up with N, that he'd plotted to kill Diego while they were allied, letting his hate cloud his reason. But he couldn't bring himself to tell her, he didn't dare risk losing her love, which he needed more than anything right now. "I guess you're right," he lied. "But enough about me."

He kissed Aqua, feeling slightly guilty about not telling her, but he lost his worries in their passionate kissing, making him feel nothing but happiness for the first time in months. Despite everything that had happened and was still going to happen, their lives were good at that moment.

–

Despite his struggle with telling Aqua what had happened with Diego, the next few days were happy ones to Boreas. Being with Aqua again was amazing, like being healthy again after a long illness, and the prospect that the League was only two weeks away made his mood even better. Aqua acted almost as their guide, since she knew the road, having travelled on it on her way to them. The forested ridge led to a series of caverns. They would spend several hours going through the caves in the mountains, and then resurfacing again. After a while they would drop underground again, and the cycle would repeat. Everyone was glad to be spending so much time underground now, as severe cold and heavy snowfall dominated the outside, while the Earth seemed to keep some warmth in.

The path they followed didn't go very deep into the mountains, but stayed somewhat close to the surface. Yet the caves occasionally branched off to deep, dark paths that seemed to lead straight to the heart of the mountains, to murky depths that hadn't seen light for aeons. Outside, the path was mostly singular, a path over mountainsides that were battered heavily by ice-cold winds. Even Boreas felt cold sometimes.

They came by a path that led straight north, up another mountain, right in the direction where the League was, but paths in the mountains often ended up going in different directions than they seemed to at first. Both Black's map and Aqua's memory said not to follow that road, but to continue westwards on the icy path over the mountainside. All were glad as they entered another cave, protecting them from the extreme weather. They spent the night in the caves on Aqua's counsel, as she made it clear this was the final tunnel they would travel through, after which the pass led straight north to the League for two more weeks.

They slept in the caves, one of them always on watch to warn the others for the many dangerous creatures that could encounter them in a cave like this. Boreas had a hard time keeping his mind in the present during the hours he was on watch, as he kept wondering about the things that could be in the darkness just outside their light's reach, and thought about the mysterious roots of the mountains they were now in, strangely with more curiosity than fear.

–

"Well, that's not good..." muttered Toxica as they looked upon the snow filling the cave's exit. They had walked through the dark tunnels until they encountered this: snow and ice filling the entire tunnel, leaving no open space to continue through at all. The fact that no light from outside shone through at all was a bad sign.

"There must've been an avalanche outside..." muttered Black. "Can we get through?" he asked Boreas, who has his ear and front paws pressed to the ice and was listening intently and cautiously letting pulses of cold run through the ice, using his species' innate senses for snow and ice to find out more about this obstacle.

"A bit of snow is no match for my fire," bragged Lucius. "Stand back, pup, and I'll melt it away."

Boreas shook his head. "Ho-oh itself couldn't melt through all that. And even if it did, it'd have to deal with a small lake's worth of molten water having nowhere to go but here."

"Are you saying we can't get through?"

"I'm saying Black is right: there's been an avalanche, and it's completely blocked the exit up; buried it under about a hundred metres of snow. But at least there's some good news: look at the smooth ice on the surface here and the ice lying around on the bottom of this tunnel, as well as the soot on the roof of the cave: N has found his way blocked too and futilely tried to melt it away. Since we didn't run into him, he must've found another way. Presumably through the other tunnels down here."

"A clever deduction, my dear fellow," commented Octa, "I suppose this snow would thaw away eventually, but we could be here until summer if we waited for that... So you propose we try and find another path through these caverns?"

Boreas had an idea. "Actually, I have a better idea: remember that path north we saw yesterday? Why don't we go back and take that road? It goes into the League's direction, and seems pretty easy to travel on. And we wouldn't have to leave the proper path underground, an idea I'm not very keen on, considering how easy it is to lose all sense of direction without the Sun or stars."

"Birds have a compass in their brains," Selene spoke up. "At least... I think we have. But I know north is there. Well, there, I mean. Or maybe there..."

They looked at her pointing different directions with her wings, and weren't quite sure how to say what they all thought, but then Lucius said it: "Well, I ain't walking through these tunnels with any part of your brain as a guide, you crazy bird. Let's go with Boreas' idea."

"But we have a proper compass too," said Toxica. "Uh, no offence, Selene. Shouldn't we try and find a different exit from these tunnels instead? We might be able to get back on the path we should be taking like that, instead of taking some other path and hoping it takes us where we want."

"A good idea, darling," said Octa with an affectionate smile. "Methinks 'tis folly to wander through a mountain range this size without knowing the way. Better to see whether there's another way out of these caves first."

–

Forcing his starved body to climb despite the pain and exhaustion he was in, Boreas once again wondered if he had led them all to their deaths. When they had found no quick exit from the caves, he had argued to take the pass north, and his enthusiasm had convinced his friends not to try and find a way through the deep reaches of the Earth, but to track back a few hours and take the pass north. It had seemed a sensible thing to do to Boreas: it led straight in the right direction, wasn't through a maze of caves under the Earth from which there might be no exit at all, and had seemed intriguing to him. He had wanted to explore the path, but he'd got much more than he wished for.

Before they'd encountered the avalanche, they had expected to reach the League by the end of November, but today was the final day of the year. He longingly thought back to the new years' celebrations last year on Route 5, and how his greatest worry at the time had been a little heartbreak and jealousy. Now there was a good chance he'd signed all their death warrants. The path had gone straight north for the first few days, but after that it began to meander wildly in all directions. Boreas was more and more certain in his heart that neither they nor this path would ever leave the Black Mountains with every passing dark day.

This far north in mid-winter, the Sun wasn't even there to comfort them with light. Every day there would be twilight, which would get brighter and brighter until it just gave up and withered away back to nights that were like deep black oceans of time. The moons and the brightly reflective snow meant they could at least see where they were going, though. Their food was as good as gone by now. The month that had been added to their journey as well as Aqua joining them meant they couldn't eat more than the tiny bite required to make them live to the next day. Boreas tried to find food every day as he scouted ahead, but there was so preciously little it only meant a very small addition to their measly diet. Despite his emaciated stomach's roar for hunger, he had only let his friends eat from the prey he caught; he knew they were at the greatest risk of not making it, since his species was at least partially capable of surviving in a landscape like this.

The presence of his friends was both a comfort and a curse. He would probably have given up if it wasn't for them, yet every time he saw how thin and pale Black was, or how Octa and Toxica had both gone yellow without light to photosynthesise, or when he felt Aqua shiver with cold and hunger in his embrace at night he felt horrid. Black returned them to their pokéballs as much as possible, but none of them were used to be in their pokéballs, and it didn't help much in the first place. The thought that their suffering might all be Boreas' fault vexed him, yet he knew better than to dwell on such thoughts endlessly by now. No-one would benefit if he brooded himself into a hopeless depression. He held on to the hope that they might one day see the League before them and feast and rest to all their desire... And then defeat N, if he had made it there, and finally let Team Plasma be defeated. Just getting to the League seemed all that was important now; in his mind the challenges they'd have to face there seemed minor compared to this. It was an incredible longshot, but Boreas held on to the knowledge that it was possible, not the knowledge that it was improbable. Any other course would lead only to him going insane with despair. And who knew? The path was about to turn around the corner of a mountain; perhaps he would see the lights of the League in its dale once he turned it? The thought made him quicken his pace over rock and ice, though his legs all protested, especially the recently-healed one.

What he saw when he turned around the corner was the last thing he expected: a wide flat country. The mountains were just gone, with terrifying suddenness. Under the dark blue twilit sky, he saw a vast snow-covered landscape. Yet there was no sign of any inhabitation; a barren wasteland of snow-covered tundra as far as the eye could see. It was then that he realised the pass had gone past the League, all the way up north until they had finally reached the northern edge of the Black Mountains and the uninhabited tundra beyond it.

–

AUTHOR'S NOTES: Well, it was about time I finished another chapter. Strangely, most of this one (everything except the final part, actually) was intended to be in the previous chapter. But in that one, I decided to end it and leave the final bit for the beginning of this chapter... But it turned out much bigger than expected. Such is the way things tend to go with stories: some things you plan as huge end up becoming a single paragraph, and some little things grow out to huge chunks of the story.

I'm going on vacation for a certain period somewhere in August that I won't disclose in more detail just in case burglars in my area happen to read this and know who I am. I'm taking my laptop with me, though, so maybe I'll write some stuff, possibly even much more than I usually do without the constant distractions of everyday life. I don't know whether I have internet there, though, so I'm not exactly sure how it will affect the speed with which chapters are posted.

FEEDBACK: Guardian54: Q: AS what I meant by genetically immortal was that while their genome may change quite a bit over their lifetimes, they cannot die of old age.

A: Ah, I see, so they essentially have the same immortality as the Elves in The Lord of the Rings?

Q: However, they CAN still be killed, though given the amount of energy needed, it is usually Pokemon killing Pokemon, as even a regular, gravity-driven, non energy-charged avalanche is inadequate to kill most Pokemon (unless 4x weak to ice, then MAYBE it would harm them to any real degree).

A: Sounds like pokémon are incredibly powerful in your story, if they aren't harmed by such things. It's similar to the game, I suppose, but personally I like pokémon to be in more realistic danger; an avalanche could likely kill the entire team, as the death of several of the very powerful pokémon of Sage Zinzolin in a regular, gravity-driven avalanche of containers shows. I prefer pokémon to be akin to real animals with magic powers (well, I suppose they're harder to hurt or kill, but not by an amazing amount. And the incredible medical technology of the pokémon world helps a lot too), and just as mortal and subject to natural laws as real living things. To each their own, I suppose.

blood-assassin: Q: Hay identity the title for chapter 39 : umbra the name of the sword in oblivion?

A: An umbra is the darkest part of a shadow, particularly the shadow of Earth or Moon during an eclipse, from which the entire disc of the Sun is obscured. The chapter titles of part six reflect the part's descent into darkness: it begins with In the Broad Daylight, when things are still well, then in the next we go Into the Shadows, starting with the Penumbra (the partial shadow caused by the disc of the Sun partially, but not entirely, obscured by something), then to Umbra, after which there is the full Eclipse. Then, as the part reaches its darkest point, it's In the Dead of Night. I decided to just do the entire part's titles like that because I have trouble thinking of good names for emotional chapters, and that part had a lot of them.

Q: When jupiner siad crimson breeders I was all HOLY SHIT I READ THAT STORY CONNECTION ZEEING

A: That's great. Not a clue what story you mean that got you talking in ALL CAPS with enthusiasm, though. The name Crimson Breeders was a random choice; I had to pick a name, and with the number of people with colours for names in the pokémon world Crimson seemed a good one.

UNKNOWN: Q: Back again. You lost that many readers? You have my sympathies, Spock.

A: Thanks, and welcome back. I seem to have lost a fair few, yeah, as I used to get about 8 reviews per chapter, which now seems to have slowed down to about 2. Which is a shame, because I love each and every review.

Q: I hope they will see that you posted 'cause the story's getting to the best parts!

A: Thanks, I hope you'll enjoy the approaching ending.

Q: Hope Boreas finally learned his lesson. I should count how many times he has fought with his friends and made amends, maybe when the story ends.

A: Well, to a certain extent I don't think he'll ever learn that lesson; he wouldn't really be Boreas if he always got along splendidly with his friends.

Q: Seriously, I never would've thought of that. Using that common misconception to fool Team Plasma... Genius! Aqua deserves the freakin' Medal of Honor or something like that. Uh, not that she'd know what it is or even accept it...

A: Hehe, glad you liked that trick. I originally just had her sneak on board, then that trick randomly popped into my head as I proofread it.

Q: I have a big feeling that Diego will probably do something extremely evil to make up for the nice thing he did... Or he'll keep doing nice things to make me fall off my seat because I'm already on the edge!

A: You'll see. :p

Q: Yeah, uh, I personally think the beard thing won't work out. Although I thought he would've looked good with an eyepatch, or both together. Then he'd look like a kick ss Pokemon version of Solid Snake! Uh, is that a good thing?

A: Well, I went with the beard, but feel free to imagine him without it if you don't like it. I don't think anyone, even I, could get him to get rid of it now that Aqua has said it looks good on him.


	63. The End of the Road

Chapter Sixty-Three: The End of the Road

Boreas dropped to his knees in despair as he looked out over the endless tundra that lay to Unova's north. They must have gone the wrong way for the past seven weeks, too far east to reach the League. Now that Boreas had reached the end of the Black Mountains, he had reached the end of hope as well. Until then, there had always been the possibility they would reach the League soon, but now it was clear they'd never get there. They should've tried to find a way through the caves, no matter how deep and dark they were, Boreas thought bitterly. Now it was too late; they simply didn't have the food or energy left to journey back for seven weeks, and then on for however much more time it took to reach the League from there. The prospect of such a journey was not only overwhelming; it was impossible.

The dreadful hunger and weariness that had gnawed on his body for weeks finally felled him, as he had fought them only with hope, and now hope had failed. Laying down into the snow in pain, he knew it for certain: he would die here. And he would take his friends with him; having to deal with the cold as well as hunger would probably kill them before him.

He could hear them climb after him, still with some hope left. He hoped they'd savour those final moments of it before they joined him. He felt the dreadful moment as they saw it one by one and realised they were doomed. He heard their laboured breathing suddenly stop for a moment as the horrific realisation came to them. They knew it was over.

Yet something in Octa made him unwilling to give up, even now. "My dear fellow," he said as Boreas felt him stir his shoulders, "stand up, please. We cannot give up, not now. We have to..."

Boreas turned around, grabbed his friend's shoulders, and looked him in the eyes, teary and desperate. "Octa, there's no point... I'm so sorry for this... It's over. There's nothing we can do but rest..."

Boreas saw the despair in Octa's eyes as well, the struggle not to give in. He felt even worse to think he'd brought Octa here to die than about his own doom. "But... We have to go on... We have to try. We can't let death simply take us, we have to fight it every step of the way. We have to endeavour to reach the League, even if our chances of making it are minimal..."

"You are brave and noble, Octa, and I'm proud to have been your friend... But our chances _were_ minimal; they're non-existent now."

"We have to try... We can't surrender, we have to continue, even if we can never reach our destination, no matter how bleak the journey... Would the heroes of the great tales ever have surrendered? Did Odysseus give up and find a nice island to live on? Did Frodo give up hope of destroying the Ring?"

Boreas softly hugged his friend. "No, they didn't... But this is no story, but reality... And in reality, not all stories have a good ending, or even a dramatically satisfying one... And I'm afraid ours ends here. We can try to fight it for another week if we really tried hard, perhaps, but that's not nearly enough to get anywhere... So I say it's better to die sooner than later, for die we must..."

It was horrible to see the nobility and the pride and the honour and the bravery all melt away from Octa's face as they were shattered and left only despair and sadness. He said nothing more, lying down to finally rest from the crushingly heavy journey.

Aqua softly stroked his hair, and Boreas felt rotten for leading her here as well. "I wish you hadn't come to find me..." he said.

"I don't," she spoke sadly. "I'd rather die by your side than live alone... Though I'd hoped the dying by your side wouldn't happen for many more years..."

"I'm sorry I led you here... We should've gone through the caves, there must've been some way deep down them."

Aqua hugged her crying boyfriend. "It's not your fault. We all agreed to take this road. We don't know if there was any way through the caves, there didn't see to be one... Maybe the only good road was back to Opelucid... But while I'd hoped our relationship would be a long and happy one, I'm willing to settle for short and exciting."

"...I guess we should stay here tonight..." muttered Black, though it was clear he too knew they would stay there forever.

They were quiet for a while, overcome with exhaustion, starvation, and despair. The final light of twilight disappeared, shrouding the world in night. Though Boreas had given up, he found himself trying to think of ways out of this anyway, imagining several options, from somehow fashioning a hot-air balloon to going down into the tundra and trying to keep as many of them as possible alive until spring. Unfortunately the simplest option of just calling for help was impossible, as Black's X-transceiver hadn't had any connection for months; it was impossible this far from all human inhabitation.

But why was he still trying to think of a way to save them? It was impossible, and trying to would only mean more suffering before their inevitable death. There was no point to wasting his thoughts on this when he should really be thinking about nice things as much as possible, since these _were_ after all his final thoughts. Yet a part of his mind was sure there was something he had overlooked, some solution to this problem. Maybe he had given up to soon after all? The sight of the desolate northern tundra was a despair-inducing one, but perhaps there was some way some of them could make it to the League yet. If only he could find a source of food... But there _was_ no food in this barren landscape.

If he got incredibly lucky, there was a small chance he might be able to catch enough food on the journey to make it to the League himself, perhaps, but he would have to leave his friends forever. Did he even want to live with everyone he had loved dead? He had felt that way once before, but he had been too young to quite understand the full implications of it, and Octa and Black had been there to take care of him and make him feel better. This time, he would have no-one but himself for company for at least two months... No-one but himself, and the blame for their deaths... And still no-one after he reached civilisation, no-one he really knew. It was impossible; even if he found the food and somehow managed to keep sane, the extreme exhaustion that filled his every muscle with weariness and pain made it impossible.

Yet he tried to think of a way in which he could save even one of his friends. If there was even a small chance of rescuing one of them, he would get up and try his best at it, as it'd give him something worth spending what little energy he had on, some hope. He tried several ideas out in his mind, but in none of them could he see any chance of getting even one of his friends to safety, not even if he considered the horrid idea of cannibalising the others for food. The cold simply made two more months even more impossible for them than for Boreas.

"Boreas?" asked a croaky voice. "Why did we give up?"

He wasn't sure how to answer Selene's question. The Honchkrow sounded so innocent and merely curious. "Well... It's because we don't stand a chance of ever getting out of these mountains alive."

"Why not?" she asked with childlike wonder, and Boreas felt horrible for having led her to her death.

"Because we took the wrong way... Because I led you down the wrong way... I'm so sorry, Selene."

"Then why don't we try and find the right way again?"

"Because it took seven weeks getting here from Victory Road! Going back there in our state would take even longer, and then we'd still have to find the way to the League... None of us would survive that long."

Selene nodded. "Then why don't we try to find a different way?"

"Because there _is_ no different way! We're hopelessly lost, we only know we ended up somewhere on the northern edge of the Black Mountains! The League could be anywhere."

"Even quite nearby?"

"Almost certainly not. The Black Mountains are gigantic, it could be anywhere! We won't find it by just wandering aimlessly, and I was an idiot to think we would."

"Well, people often think I'm an idiot, but if that's what an idiot does, I'm happy to be one. Because I'm not just going to lie here and wait to die; I'm going to do the crazy thing and look for the League."

"But... You can't even fly!"

"But I can walk," she said, as she got up to her feet, wobbled a bit, and took clumsy steps through the snow, making a pained face because of the coldness at every step.

Boreas marvelled at her determination, but also realised what she was trying to do. "Selene, this won't work. You're not going to make it to the League like this, and you're not going to get me to join you either."

"Fine with me," she said, walking on, "I wasn't trying to get you to join me anyway. I'll probably see you again once we're all snow pixies, but if I make it to the League, I'll be sure to remember you all. Say bye to Lucius for me, if he wakes up again."

Seeing her clumsily walk away into the icy night filled Boreas with admiration for her bravery and determination. He knew this was probably exactly what she was aiming at, but he didn't care: he got up, walked after her, and put her on his shoulder. "Come on, you crazy bird, you'll get frostbite if you walk through the snow like that. Say I followed you, did you have any plan or were you just going to wander randomly?"

"Well," explained Selene, "I was planning to ask the people making those lights for the way."

"Lights?" Boreas blurted out in surprise. Then he saw it: a distant mountain top in the south west was being illuminated by light of constantly changing colours. It would light up blue now, then red, then green. "What the..." Suddenly it dawned on him, and hope brightly shone into his mind like the Sun driving away the night of despair. "Zapdos' toenails, those are fireworks!" he hugged Selene tightly, causing her to squirm in his sudden grip a bit. "You did it! You found the League!"

He immediately rushed to his friends and tried to wake them up. "Wake up! Wake up, we gave up far too soon! Aqua, wake up! Octa, on your feet... Well, stand u- get up, I mean. Black, Toxica, Lucius, it's not time to die yet! Look, Selene found the League!"

"Huh? What?" murmured Black.

"Look, that mountain is illuminated by fireworks! They're celebrating New Year at the League! It's not that far, we can still make it! Come on, come on!"

They were all acting as if they were dazed and confused, and Boreas quickly realised they were hypothermic from going to sleep without tent or blankets in their despair. "Come on, I've been an idiot letting us give up, and I'm not going to have you die. We know where the League is!"

An intelligent gleam re-entered Octa's dazed eyes as he clumsily got up. "Hmm? My dear felon... Fellow, are you... Sure? That's splendid..."

"Yeah, it is! Come on, get up, all of you. You're suffering from hypothermia because I led you in giving up, but now I'm going to fix that mistake and get you all to the League. Black, get up."

But he was still lying down, his eyes closed. "Hmmm... Let it wait till morning... I want to sleep..."

"If you sleep now, you'll never wake up again, you'll freeze to death! Get up."

"I know we still have far to go," murmured Black, "so let me sleep, we'll make plans tomorrow..."

Boreas bit down on Black's clothes and began pulling him up. "I'm not letting you sleep, so you might as well get up and walk. You'll be warmer that way."

Octa too forced Black to get up, exclaiming: "On your feet, Black, old chap, 'twas wrong and cowardly of us to despair and give up. I can only imagine what my illustrious ancestors would say to such folly," he said glumly as they forced Black to cooperate.

"Let me help a hand, guys," Toxica said as she thrust her flower under Black's nose. He made a sound of disgust at the smell she emitted, and got up quickly.

"Thanks, Toxica," said Boreas. He realised Octa needed encouragement. "Don't worry, Octa, I'm sure your ancestors would understand. At least the wiser ones would. C'mon," he said, beckoning the others, "follow me, I think the mountain slopes here on the north-side aren't too steep for us to walk on them if we're cautious. We'll travel west along the north-end of the range, and seek another path south as soon as possible. If we get some luck at last, we may find a way into the dale of the League from the north instead of the south."

Boreas led them onto the slopes of the mountains, the endless tundra covered in winter's snow and an occasional cloud stretching out to their right. Boreas made sure not to get too far ahead, worried his friends might give up in the bitter cold, and Octa used the opportunity to stay close to him. "I fear you may be wrong, my dear fellow," he said at last. "My ancestors were great, noble, and valorous. They did not falter or let despair overcome them, no matter how dark the road."

"Sure they did," said Boreas. "Only no-one remembers it, because they overcame such moments, found their bravery again, and did the great things you remember them for. And you'll do great things too."

"How can you be sure of that?" said Octa glumly. "What am I, but a pale shadow of my fathers? Shall I ever do deeds worthy of tales, or shall my heart falter again?"

Boreas had never seen Octa so full of self-doubt. He was always so proud, arrogant even, but now a huge change had come over him. "Octa, you're worth more than any of your ancestors. I know you'll do great, brave things. I don't know whether we can stop Team Plasma, but I'm certain that whether we win or lose, you'll be the envy of all your ancestors."

"But how? How do you know this?"

Boreas gave him a hug and looked into his eyes. "Because you're my best friend, and I've known you well for almost all my life. I know your bravery and how noble you are. You're a great Serperior, Octa, and if there are any Equinoctes left in the future, I know they'll all be told of the great Octavianus, whether it's of his glorious victory or his brave last stand. But more than that, I know I can always count on you, no matter what."

"Thank you, my dear fellow," Octa said, his voice drenched with emotion and a tear in his eye.

–

Knowing his own determination was all that kept the others going through the incredibly hostile landscape, Boreas silenced his doubt they'd ever find a way. It was very disconcerting to see Octa in so much self-doubt it overcame his usual pride, so Boreas was as strong as he could to help his friend. Every step his exhausted and starved body had to take was agony, but he kept on trying to find a path in the knowledge his friends were feeling even worse, half-frozen as they were, and needed him more than ever.

They travelled on the northern slopes of the mountains for a few dark days. Boreas had to be incredibly careful, as there was no path save the one he made himself. Missteps almost cost him his life twice as he slid down several metres. The days were darker than ever before, as the mountains shielded the southern horizon and its twilight glow at day from them. Soon they ate their very last food. Boreas didn't expect ever to make it to the League, but he had to carry on and try.

On the fifth day, their determination was finally rewarded: there was a large separation between two mountains, only a little above them. Seeing this, they climbed to it, and saw the mountains form a snowed vale leading south. The League or its dale wasn't visible, but Boreas could see what he thought was the same mountain that had been enlightened by fireworks at New Year. They were seeing it from a different direction now, though, so he couldn't be sure, yet they journeyed towards it. They had no choice: they had eaten their last food the day before, so now it was a matter of days at most before they were too weak to continue.

Boreas took courage from the proximity of the mountain and the sky ahead getting brighter every day, but meanwhile his hunger grew and drained him of what strength he had left. By the time he found another valley bending westwards branching off of this one, his body felt incredibly weak. He had no idea hunger could be so powerful, so painful even. Even the thought of food made him drool, and he thought of it a lot. He was quite sure that if he ever found something to eat again, he'd eat until his belly had the size and shape of a cannonball.

One evening, they were huddled around a fire Lucius had made from some wood from the trees that managed to grow here. It wasn't much, but at least it warmed them a little. It was nice even to Boreas, because while his body could still function properly when its temperature was below zero, as it was now, it was quite unpleasant for long periods of time. Yet warming himself up would cost energy he simply didn't have.

In the past they'd often had their meal around such a fire, but that was of course impossible with no food left. They didn't speak, too busy sharing what little heat they had. Black finally asked them: "Wh-what are you going to do if we defeat Team Plasma?"

The question was quite a shock to Boreas, as he had completely forgotten that if by some miracle everything went according to plan, it wouldn't be very long until they came to journey's end. He hadn't really thought much about what he wanted to do afterwards; the quest seemed so daunting and huge it didn't seem likely he would ever get to fulfil any plans he made.

"I'm staying with you, of course," said Lucius. "I didn't come this far to go do other stuff. When we beat the Champion, and those Plasma bastards are dead and burned, I'm going to enjoy being the Champion's pokémon and defend that title. Think of all the power and fame we'd have..."

Boreas considered the same. While it would mean being with his friends all the time, as well as being the most renowned Glaceon in the world, it also seemed rather boring. Just being in the League for most of the year, waiting for challengers... He didn't think he wanted to sit still for so long when there was so much he hadn't seen yet.

Toxica nodded. "Me too, but Octa and I have more important things to work out first. We gotta visit his family to get 'em sorted out once and for all."

"Indeed, my darling," spoke Octa, "for they still do not approve of our union, though they tolerate it for now, recognising there are more pressing issues. After all this is over, however, we shall have to return to my ancestral home to discuss the matter. And if they do not accept Toxica as one of our own..." he took a slow, worried gulp, "I shall have to leave them, for I would not leave Toxica even for them."

"Thanks," said Toxica with tears in her eyes, and she softly kissed him. "I know how much they mean to you..."

"Not as much as you do, my darling," said Octa with a smile. Boreas petted his friend on the back, realising the tremendous and brave sacrifice he had just promised to make.

It was quiet for a while. "I don't know," said Selene. "Maybe I'll go look for Uncle Istvan... But then, I heard about these three fairies, they might be fun to meet..."

"If you're not sure what you're gonna do," Lucius offered, "maybe you should just stay with us? It'd be more fun to keep us all together, even you, and it'd be easier to defend the Champion title that way."

Selene nodded and winked. "Well, sure, if you want me to stay with you that much, I will."

"I don't want you to stay at all!" Lucius snapped angrily, clearly to Selene's humour, "you good for nothing birdbrain, why would I ever want you to stay with me?"

"I don't know," Selene teased, "but you clearly would love me to stay with you."

"I don't!" snapped Lucius. "Boreas, what are you going to do when we finish this?"

Boreas was given some time to think by Toxica sarcastically exclaiming: "Look over there, a change of subject! Lucius and Selene sitting in a tree..." and a brief quarrel ensuing, but then he had to answer.

"Well..." he said, still unsure. "I'm not sure either... Staying with you would be fun, but somehow it seems a bit boring to me. I want to see new places; I don't want to sleep twice on the same ground. I want..." a thought occurred to him. "I want to take you up on your offer, Aqua!"

"Huh?" she exclaimed in surprise.

"I beg your pardon?" exclaimed Octa.

The more he thought about it, the more he liked it. "Remember, Aqua, you offered it to me several times: for us to leave together and go wherever we please?" he grabbed her paw. "Well, I've decided on my answer, if you still want to do that: yes, I would love to go with you to unknown places. If we somehow defeat Team Plasma and are both able to tell the tale, I'd be delighted to see the world together."

Aqua smiled happily. "That's great! And I'd still love to travel with you, my love."

Boreas happily imagined their future together, but then his train of thoughts was derailed.

"But my dear fellow," Octa interjected, "that would mean we would have to part. Quite possibly forever..."

Boreas realised with a stab of sadness that it was true, that it would mean leaving Octa, as well as his other friends, behind. But even so, he knew he was going to leave if they ever defeated Team Plasma. "I know..." he said sadly. "I'm sorry, Octa, I really am. But a Champion's pokémon's life just isn't for me. I don't want the journey to end, as there are so many places yet I've never been to. Hoenn, for example, or Johto. I've even heard about whole continents inhabited only by pokémon, which humans never found. If they exist, I'd love to find them."

"That is only a myth, my dear fellow. But do you really want to leave me behind?"

"No, I don't. In fact, as far as I'm concerned, you are all welcome to join us."

Octa sadly shook his head. "My apologies, my dear fellow, but I shan't. An adventurer's life, journeying for the sake of journeying, unfortunately is not for _me_. I shall remain Black's pokémon, helping him defeat challengers. But more importantly, we shall combat threats against Unova and its people, as is the Champion's duty. Plenty of honour, greater even than the Championship, can be achieved there. And if my house does not expel me for my union with Toxica, I shall continue to serve them. First my noble father, and then my brother Gaius who has been named his successor. But I would prefer to do all this with you at my side... Are you quite certain you wish to leave?"

Boreas sadly squeezed Octa's arm. Though he had expected such an answer, he still wished it was different. "I'm sorry, but I really am... But it won't be a permanent farewell, I wouldn't want to miss my best friend forever. I'll come back often..."

Octa nodded. "I know. Yet it would be a long time between our meetings. And there is a chance you would come to an early grave in some far land, and the news of it would never reach me..."

Boreas hugged his friend tightly. "I'm so sorry... But it's just the way I am. You know I wouldn't enjoy the future you want... But there's no need to say goodbye yet, or already be sad about the future; after all, there's a good chance we'll never-" he was about to say "-get out of these mountains alive," but thought better of it: "-manage to defeat Team Plasma."

"I know." Octa nodded. "But now I know that even if we are victorious, and all we hope comes true, I shall still have to suffer this loss."

Toxica nodded. "We'll miss you, Boreas."

–

The valley slowly turned south, and suddenly, as he turned about a mountain, he saw a sight so lovely he forgot everything else: green grass deep down below in the vale. The Pokémon League stood here, in a valley protected from the elements by tall mountains all around, and heated and lighted by human ingenuity. He cried out in joy, and at that moment an intense light shone into his eye as a small sliver of the Sun rose above the far southern horizon, easily brighter than anything he'd seen in ages. The light seemed to shine through him, illuminating both his heart and his mind brightly.

"The Sun..." gasped Toxica as the others caught up to Boreas.

It was silent again for a while, until Lucius said: "More importantly, the League!" he gave Boreas a friendly stomp. "Haha, you did it, pup! I guess you're good for _something_!"

"Good old Lucius," chuckled Selene, "still unable to pat someone on the back without kicking them in the loins at the same time."

"Shut up, you crazy bird," said Lucius happily. "C'mon, let's get down there!"

–

–

AUTHOR'S NOTES: As I write this, I'm sitting on a bench in a forest on a mountain in Austria, writing a bit on my laptop in the most relaxing environment ever. By the time you read this, however, it'll be two weeks from now and I'll be home again, able to edit and upload all the chapters I write on this vacation: chapter 63, 64, and 65. But I won't upload them all at once, just this one. That's because they still need proofreading and editing. Unfortunately, those are far less fun than writing the chapter in the first place, which is why I'm not doing them on vacation. I'm not sure how long it'll be until I upload chapter 64 after this, but it will happen sooner if I get a lot of reviews/comments, since those motivate me a lot. So if you want to read what happens next soon, post a review. It doesn't need to be big, or even very sensible. A line or two about whether you like the story and what characters you like best are certainly enough. And I can take criticism, so anything wrong with the story, tell me.

Anyway, that concludes part nine, which has been a very difficult part to write. Next up, as we journey into seven bits chapters, is Part Ten: Five Great Warriors, with which we're beginning to reach the end of the story! I've already written rough versions of its first two chapters, so we'll see if I can keep up a decent pace until the end of the story.

FEEDBACK: The Bulbafinatic: Q: I apologize if I sound like I write spam, I had no intention of making it look like that... Even when I posted the same review twice, that was because my internet messed up and I wasn't sure if it was posted or not.

A: I have no idea why you should sounds like you write spam; I don't get that impression at all. Your review didn't double-post or anything, so don't worry.

Q: Right, so, I wonder if anyone (particularly Lucius) is thinking that it might be that Aqua knew about the avalanche and wanted to slow them down? It seems unlikely, and considering that Aqua would suffer too, and I'm positive that she's one of the good guys... Yeah.

A: Yeah, I think Lucius too realises the avalanche wasn't part of her plan. N has been waylaid by it as well, after all.

Q: But if Reshiram is to be resurrected, then there would need to be a sixth slot on the team. I have a horrible feeling that someone might end up dying to fit that need.

A: You'll see.

Q: So, if going into a Pokéball is like having your molecules seperated, so that you're essentially an entity floating in a strange hyperspace, what would it be like to be deposited into a PC? Probably just as bad, considering Pokémon lose "happiness points" when they are deposited into one. I dunno.

A: It would probably be the same as in a pokéball, though probably with more entertainment considering pokémon need to be there for long periods of time. And no, they don't lose happiness in the PC, that would hardly be fair of the game considering how few pokémon you can have with you. Their happiness is simply frozen while in the PC.

fractalman: Q: So...black's finally gotten decent at understanding pokespeech. And boreas has grown a beard. O.o ...guess I should've seen the beard from a month ahead.

A: Yeah, the beard was on the art I did of him after all.


	64. On the Eve of Battle

Part Ten: Five Great Warriors

Chapter Sixty-Four: On the Eve of Battle

Boreas woke up feeling warm, fed, comfortable, and happy for the first time in ages. Slowly opening his eyes, he found he was in a soft bed in a pokécenter, under thick blankets. In his arms lay Aqua, sleeping peacefully and snoring softly. As he snuggled up to her, he recalled how he'd got here. Their slow, laboured descent down the northern side of the Pokémon League valley, how they had finally reached their destination after five months on Victory Road, feeling more dead than alive, how they had been taken to the pokécenter quickly and given the greatest meal they'd ever eaten – though that likely had more to do with their famished stomachs than the true quality of the food. Finally they had been taken to this room, put in their beds, and fallen into a deep, careless sleep. Or at least Boreas had after sneaking out of his own bed and into Aqua's.

That they had reached the League, without losing anyone, felt better even than the soft bed and the sweet girl in his arms. He had led his friends through uncharted paths over the Black Mountains and against all odds they had made it, if only by a hair's breadth. The sight of the mountain had kept them going, but while hope could nourish their minds it couldn't nourish their bodies, and even the most determined mind will eventually find a physical limit its body can't go past. They had come dangerously close to that limit, and even now Boreas' body still felt weak and achy, if less so than the day before.

Boreas didn't have to worry any more that Aqua might starve soon, though when he felt her stomach he noticed her ribs still stuck out far too much. That and the weakness he felt himself made him realise they were in no condition at all to fight, regardless of whether N had reached the League as well.

But had he? Boreas didn't even know that, as they had only had thought for food, warmth, and rest yesterday. Or was it before that? They had all been tired enough to sleep through a whole day, easily. He'd seen trainers and their pokémon work together in the pokécenter, so N probably wasn't Champion yet. Maybe he hadn't made it out of Victory Road? That would be a very bad thing, oddly enough, as it removed the only reasonably easy chance they had at beating Team Plasma.

Aqua suddenly began cuddling him back, and mumbled sleepily in a soft voice that made Boreas' heart beat faster: "Hmm, Boreas... What're you doing to my belly?"

With a blush, Boreas stopped rubbing and petting her stomach, which he had subconsciously continued doing. "Er... Sorry."

Slowly opening two deep black eyes, Aqua giggled. "You don't have to stop, it felt quite nice. You may rub my belly any time... Though I'd also like to fill it at some point, I'm hungry..."

Boreas winked and resumed the rubbing. "Alright, then. Come to think of it, I'm quite hungry too. Maybe we should try to find some breakfast... Or whatever meal it is at this time of the day."

"Hmm... Later... Right now, I just want to lie here and snuggle you..."

"I would be happy to," said Boreas truthfully. "I don't think I've felt this well in a long time..."

"Neither have I..." flirted Aqua as she gently nuzzled his fur. "But maybe after breakfast, we'll have regained enough energy to do things that are even more fun than just snuggling, so we can feel even better?"

"I thought you didn't want to get breakfast," chuckled Boreas, blushing.

"Well, I thought I didn't... But now that I have something more to look forward to, maybe I do..."

"Well," giggled Boreas, "I've got an idea: I'll get up real quickly and get us breakfast as fast as I can. I'll come back, dive back into bed with you, and we'll eat it. And then... Well, we'll see what happens next."

"Can't wait to find out." Aqua winked as Boreas got up quickly. He didn't stand quite stable, but it was no problem. He quickly left the hospital ward, almost skipping. Things had gone so much better than he had ever expected. The journey had been incredibly long and hard, but in the end he had led his friends to the safety of the League. His greatest hope had thus come true, and now he was well-rested, warm, and about to get another meal. Not just that, but he had just snuggled with Aqua without hunger or the fear of death clouding their moods, and was probably about to get lucky too. In short, he was full of glee, and as he skipped through the pokécenter, he wondered why he would ever need to feel concern or unhappiness again.

"Attention, challenger N's battle with Shauntal of the Elite Four is about to begin. Head to the holographic hall to watch it live!"

"Oh," said Boreas, "I guess that's why."

–

As Boreas recovered over the next few days, he explored the League. It was in a wide valley between the mountains, protected from the storms and blizzards by them, and warmed up more by human ingenuity. The southern half of the valley was the public part of the League, which was essentially a town full of trainers. There was the pokécenter, but also the train station, a market, various training facilities, houses for those who lived there, and more. At the moment, it also served as a refuge for anyone who didn't want their pokémon taken from them, as one of the last free places in Unova. The northern half of the League was inaccessible to anyone other than the Elite Four, the Champion, and their challengers, so Boreas didn't know much about it. It had five towers; a large one in the middle and four smaller ones around it coloured black, purple, dark red, and blue; and there seemed to be other facilities there as well. The tops of the towers would sometimes be lit by the Sun at day, while the rest of the valley had only artificial lights then.

The first few days they were slowly recovering from their trial, glad they had survived and finally reached the League as they regaining their strength. Yet they were also reminded now that the journey was never the true challenge: it still lay ahead of them. N had arrived two weeks before them. Apparently he had managed to find a deep path through the caves, and it had landed him on a different pass. After a journey almost as long as Black's, he had finally arrived at the League, coming from the west. No-one, human or pokémon, was allowed to be present at a Pokémon League battle they weren't part of, but several 3D cameras across the room would record the battle and broadcast it as a spectacular hologram in a great dome called the holographic hall.

The news that trickled in from south painted a grim picture: Unova, other than the League, was now completely in Plasma's hands. It sounded like a grim, grey land where only Team Plasma had pokémon and any dissension was punished severely. Plasma's victory was nearly complete. Zekrom's force of will was strong enough to influence many people, and by now Plasma was popular enough that they probably didn't even need N to become Champion. Boreas wondered if defeating him would make any difference, even if they could do it. N was the official king of Team Plasma, but by now the Seven Sages were as good as kings of Unova. The Gym Leaders all seemed to have disappeared, and Black was unable to get any news of Bianca, Cheren, or White.

N had already beaten three of the Elite Four by the time Boreas was well enough to leave the pokécenter. He went to the holographic hall with Aqua to watch his final battle, against a master of psychic pokémon named Caitlin. The hologram was incredible, as if the battle took place right in the dome. This way people could watch the battles, despite not being allowed into the northern half of the League.

Caitlin's pokémon fought gracefully and elegantly, yet it was clear there was tremendous power in them. Boreas had only once fought a powerful psychic type, and it was a very unpleasant memory, and had allowed Diego to impersonate his brother. He was no stranger to deceit and trickery himself, and so he already knew the power of manipulating an opponent's mind, but to do it directly, simply reaching into it and changing things? That was a terrifyingly powerful gift, one that Boreas wished he wouldn't have to fight soon.

But it seemed likely he would. While at first Caitlin seemed to be gaining the upper hand, that changed when it was Diego's turn to fight. Mysterious, dark powers took down two of Caitlin's pokémon. Boreas didn't know to what extent the Zoroark's powers were illusions and what part of them was real, but he could easily tell Diego was an even more dangerous opponent than ever before. He was also reminded of what he had tried to do to him the day they allied and blushed with shame. The troubles on Victory Road had allowed him to repress the memory for a while, but now he knew he would have to deal with it somehow. He needed to tell Aqua what the Glaceon she loved was really like, but he was too ashamed to do it. He was scared she'd get angry at him, or even dump him. So he tried to focus on the battle instead.

Diego was eventually defeated by a Bronzong, and N replaced him with Zekrom, his sole remaining pokémon. Even though it was merely holographic and the real Zekrom was far away in Caitlin's tower, Boreas still felt a surge of passion for pokémon liberation and wished to be free from Black, but quickly shook it off. The effect was much greater on the long-haired, princess-like Caitlin and her pokémon, though, who were much nearer. They were clearly confused and in doubt. Then Zekrom attacked.

Boreas had never seen anything like it. He had been too distracted by his own enemies and observing Diego when they had met in the Black Mountains to pay attention to the battle between Zekrom and Hydreigon, but now he could just watch it battle. It was awe-inspiring and terrifying. Intense bolts of lighting flashed with fierce blue light that put the Sun to shame. Huge meteors of fire and lightning struck and rocked the entire tower. Boreas felt their power course through his veins, though this was no more than a hologram. Everyone watching it was silent with awe.

"Zekrom prese-" Boreas began, before correcting himself: "Kyogre preserve us..."

He hadn't fully realised until now what it meant for a legendary pokémon to be on N's side. Now that he did, he saw the outcome of this battle immediately, and knew tomorrow's battle with Alder was no more than a formality: N would become Champion, there was no doubt about it. And then he and Zekrom would wield an almost invincible power over the hearts and minds of everyone in Unova.

–

Octa walked to the holographic hall with Toxica. They hadn't been released from the pokécenter yet the day before, so they only had the accounts of Boreas and Aqua to rely on for the strength of N's team. They wanted to watch his final battle with Alder, both to cheer the Champion on, though he couldn't hear them of course, and to observe their eventual opponent if N did win.

"Octa?" Toxica asked worriedly. "Do you think Boreas is right? Do you think Alder doesn't stand any chance against Zekrom?"

Octa paused. "'Tis a good question, my darling. One I do not yet know the answer of. However, I do know Alder is a very powerful trainer; 'tis evident from his position as Champion. Recall his prowess in the battles of Dragonspiral Tower and Nacrene City. Zekrom may be a legendary pokémon, but it's still a pokémon. It can be defeated, I am certain of it, and if Alder can't do it, we'll see what we can do. Darkness shan't fall."

To his delight and slight embarrassment, Toxica hugged him and gave him a kiss. "You're right, it's just-"

"Keep your dirty hands off the descendants of Equinox the Great, Vileplume, or darkness shall fall for you sooner than you think," spoke a voice icily.

Octa turned in shock, letting Toxica go, and saw an angry-looking Serperior whose body was streaked with several bands of purple. "Hey, who do you think you are, you stuck-up git?!" snapped Toxica angrily, to Octa's shame.

"Quiet, Vileplume; do not speak to your betters in such manner," sneered the Serperior.

Octa felt caught between two fires as two of those he loved spoke to each other like that. So he tried to pretend it didn't happen. "Gaius, my dear brother! What a delight to see you again, but what are you doing here?"

Gaius frowned in contempt. "I could ask you the same, brother. Why are you shaming yourself in public with this common hag when you could have been wed to the fair Aurora Invicta of the house of Quintillus?"

"Hey, who-" Toxica began.

"Brother," said Octa sternly, "this is the time nor the place to discuss my private life. I know you have been in opposition of my choice-"

"In opposition? My dear brother, don't you see opposition to it is the only sensible stance? How could you forsake five centuries of our house's history by choosing this hag over the fair Aurora Invicta? Selfishly deny your descendants the noble ancestry you have? I can barely believe you could do such a thing. And I want you to know that while you somehow got our father to support you, as well as our foolish younger siblings, I shall ever guard the future of our house, as well as yourself, both now and when I inevitably succeed Lord Publius as our leader."

"Hi there, Octa, Toxica," said Boreas, who had just arrived too. "Who's this big girl's blouse, then?"

Octa winced at the untimely arrival and rude remark of Boreas, feeling very much trapped between Scylla and Charibdis. Fortunately his brother scowled and said: "So this is the kind of company you keep nowadays? Plebeian Vileplumes and scruffy-looking Glaceons who insult your family; how the mighty have fallen. I shall take my leave now; come talk to me without this rabble some time." He turned and slithered away.

"Good riddance," spat Boreas. "What a windbag."

Octa felt quite angry hearing his brother talked about like that. "Be quiet and do not insult my brother."

"Your brother?"

"Yes," Octa explained with annoyance, "that was my older brother, Gaius Julius the fourth of the house of Equinox you just insulted."

"He deserved it, bossing you around and insulting Toxica. Is your whole family like that?"

"No," said Toxica, "not all of them. His other siblings are pretty nice. It's just Gaius who has a thorny stick up his-"

Octa interrupted angrily. "I forbid you both to talk of my family like that! For your information, Gaius is noble, wise, cunning, and brave. He simply does not support our union, and got quite angry seeing us osculate in public, making him express himself far less tactful than he would otherwise."

"That's an understatement," muttered Toxica. "But I still don't like 'im. And he doesn't like me either."

"Indeed, he doesn't. And he shall like you far less after this situation, which is a problem. You see, he is a very influential member of my house; so much, in fact, that he will most likely succeed my father as our leader. Therefore, you have made a grave mistake by earning his scorn, as it will surely spread to others as well."

"Oh..." said Toxica. "I didn't know that."

"I know you didn't," sighed Octa. "But understand that if you ever wish to become a lady of the house of Equinox, you shall have to learn how things work in it. For if you do not fall into grace with my house, they shan't ever condone our union, in which case I would have to leave the family... I implore you, do not make me do that. 'Tis a prospect that fills me with dread."

"Sorry," said Toxica sadly, "I know I'll need to impress your family. I really-"

"Attention, challenger N's battle with Champion Alder is about to begin. Head to the holographic hall to watch it live!"

"Come on," said Boreas. "We've wasted enough time with this, let's watch the battle to see what'll happen next."

–

Silence hung heavily after the Volcarona crash-landed into the floor and didn't get up again, its glow quickly dimming. None spoke as they let the realisation that N had won and was now the Champion sink in. Alder too was flabbergasted. Finally, N spoke:

"Today, a new era begins as I, N, become the final Champion of Unova! The final trainers will release their pokémon during my time as Champion as I command it, and then I will at last disband the Pokémon League, and the very concept of the Championship."

But Alder said: "Please, do anything but that! You can't end the friendships between humans and pokémon, you will destroy many beautiful things if you do! I know you are a good person, but you are also a very deluded one. Look at what Team Plasma has done and continues to do, and compare it with all the good trainers have done! You are fighting the wrong battle, N."

"Don't speak," said N calmly. "We fought to test our ideals, and mine won. You have no right to speak, as you've been proven wrong."

"I didn't fight to test my ideals, but to protect them! You can't prove an idea simply by fighting for it, you only prove to be more powerful that way. An idea's strength doesn't translate into physical strength! Evil can be more powerful than good."

N, for the first time Boreas knew him, wavered. "I... Maybe..."

But then Diego spoke. "He's lying, like humans usually do. A good ideal gives strength, while evil only tears it down. That's why Zekrom is so powerful: because it fights for what is right. And that is why you won. And now, the pathetic human is trying to twist your mind with his lies since he couldn't win properly."

N nodded. "You're right!"

An earthquake struck. The hall shook and panic erupted. "A mountain!" someone screamed from outside. "A new mountain is rising!"

As Boreas rushed outside, he saw it wasn't a mountain, though its size was almost as impressive. Tower after huge tower of obsidian black stone erupted from the ground, rising up rapidly as if by magic to the north of the League. But not just there: dark towers, walls, and fortresses rose to the east and west of the five towers of the League, which now seemed small and insignificant by comparison, enveloping them like a hawk about to devour its prey. The Earth shook, and small avalanches of snow and rock rolled down the slopes of the mountains around the League. Clouds of dust hung around the base of the mighty fortress that had risen from the ground. Flagpoles rose from the tops of the towers, and unfurled to show the banner of Team Plasma. When the castle had stopped rising, and the Earth stopped shaking, bridges opened from several towers, bridges that thrust towards the Champion's tower, touching its highest floor. There was a phenomenal cracking sound, and then tiny figures moved on one of the bridges. Boreas rushed back inside.

The Champion's Room was devastated: three bridges had broken through the walls, making a mess of rubble inside. Alder looked as flabbergasted as everyone else, and even N looked surprised. Diego, however, didn't.

"What- what is going on?" Alder worded the question in everyone's minds.

At that moment, the Seven Sages entered the room via the bridge. "Congratulations, N," spoke Ghetsis. "You've proven our ideals of pokémon liberation by becoming the Champion! But since you are very different from the corrupt former Champions, you require a different chamber than this one. Follow me, my lord, to your throne room, from where you and Zekrom will rule Unova."

"The castle..." N gasped. "I had no idea it could do that..."

"It only needed to be underground for as long as Team Plasma was. Now that we're victorious, it shall stand in the place of the outdated League as a testament to the power of our dreams."

N spoke aloud to nobody in particular: "Black, I know you're watching this. You heard Ghetsis: I'll be in my throne room in Team Plasma's Castle, where I belong. Only you can defeat me now, and that is highly unlikely. But you'll try anyway, that's what you're a hero for. So come to my throne room; I will command Team Plasma you are to be let into the Castle unharmed. And then we will fight like the heroes of old and once and for all determine whether truth or ideals is more powerful."

–

With N as the Champion, Zekrom's power somehow seemed increased greatly. Boreas now felt the wish for liberation all the time, as did other pokémon, while humans felt inclined to release their pokémon all over Unova. It needed to be stopped, or soon there would be no trainers left. But they couldn't battle N right away. First they needed to recover from their ordeal on Victory Road, which took them almost two weeks.

They trained a lot during this time, mainly having training fights against each other. To change things up and prepare better they had practice fights against different opponents, except for Boreas against Aqua. This exception was because their training matches always seemed to turn into tongue wrestling matches instead. While they both protested they were training well and didn't mind having a bit of fun during training, Octa snidely pointed out that since neither of them were ghost-types, they wouldn't be using their tongues in combat, and were therefore better off training against someone they wouldn't end up snogging with. Octa found it quite annoying: while he could understand their love for each other was strong, surely there was such a thing as self-control?

Black had asked for permission to enter the Champion's tower and challenge N directly, since it was the only way into the Castle that could be found. This request had been passed on to the Elite Four, who refused it. So he had requested it again, with a whole series of powerful arguments, but again the Elite Four refused, despite the huge fortress now enveloping their League and Plasma ruling Unova.

One day, Black met with Alder, and had the opportunity to ask him why they would refuse when it was.

"I don't know," said the former Champion, who looked down on his luck and shocked at his defeat several days before. "And I can't ask them either, as I'm no longer allowed in the League, being the ex-Champion. The only way I could get there would be by challenging, but I'm not allowed to since I didn't get here through Victory Road."

"So what you're saying is, I'll have to ask them myself when I battle them."

"That's right, I'm afraid..." sighed Alder. "I hope it's just of devotion to their duty as Elite Four; but I just don't know them well enough to be sure..."

"What are they like?"

"I never got along with them very well... And I was usually away from the League travelling. They're very powerful trainers, quite close to my own skill. It's going to be very hard to defeat them. You battle one of them each day, and then you have the rest of that day to recover and get ready for the next battle. Lose against any of them, and your challenge is over immediately. You fight Grimsley, master of the dark-type, on the first day; then Shauntal who masters the ghost-type; Marshall the fighting-type master; and finally you'll have to battle the leader of the Elite Four, Caitlin the psychic-master. Only then can you challenge N..."

"It'll be tough..." said Black.

"I know it'll be tough, that's what it's supposed to be! But you're the only hope we have to defeat N... I'll help you train, because if you lose..."

–

Octa met with Gaius in private soon after N had become the new Champion. It turned out he had come to the League with various other members of the family to observe Octa's battles. Octa was delighted to hear news from home: things were as well as they could be, with no more attacks on their home. This was because the humans of Crimson Breeders had made an arrangement with Plasma: they gave up the breeding and left the pokémon to their own, and in turn Team Plasma would let the pokémon be as well. While it meant their home was safe for as long as Plasma kept its promise, it also felt a bit too much like a surrender for most of the Equinoctes, including Octa. He was happy his family was well, but on a certain level he would have preferred to have heard about their glorious deaths as they defended their ancestral home until the bitter end.

Gaius had also come to dissuade Octa from his relationship with Toxica, and Octa was far less happy about this. While he apologised for some of the words he'd used in anger, he still asked his brother to reconsider his love for Toxica several times. Octa refused, of course, yet he was beginning to wonder if his family wasn't right in discouraging his dalliance with her. Until now, he had believed pursuing a relationship with her and thus breaking his house's rules had been the right thing to do, ever since she and Boreas had convinced him to do so. But in the light of his cowardice on Victory Road, he began to wonder if it wasn't part of a larger failure of character of his. Perhaps he wasn't a proper descendant of Equinox the great, at least, not in mind; he knew of course for certain that he descended from Equinox, biologically speaking. But it was said there's a rotten Leppa in every basket; perhaps he was the one in the house of Equinox?

He could try and excuse his cowardice by trying to convince himself he had been following Boreas on the road the Glaceon had chosen; when he gave up, it was therefore logical to do the same, to assume that if Boreas couldn't find the way, no-one could. But he knew it was a worthless excuse: his friend was just a common Glaceon, brave and intelligent though he was. Octa, on the other hand, was a descendant of the great Equinox: in a time of despair he should've been better than to accept defeat; he should have led them on instead, as his ancestors would have. The only reason he was even alive at all was the courage of Selene, of all people.

Ever since that horrible moment, when his courage and noble blood had failed him when he needed them the most, he had been full of self-doubt. He had always believed the blood of his ancestors that ran through his veins meant he was like them. It was only through Boreas' renewed determination and his never-failing friendship that Octa had continued after that. And now, whenever he talked to Gaius, the shameful, nagging knowledge that he was far less noble than his brother gnawed on him. Perhaps he had just inherited the wrong genes from his ancestors; or perhaps he had the right genes, but simply didn't have the valour of his ancestors. The approaching battles against the Elite Four and N actually frightened him now, since he could easily lose them and fail all of Unova, if he could fail his own blood.

He could of course tell Gaius about it and announce his decision to leave the family, unworthy as he was. But he realised there was a better way: he could try to act like a true descendant of Equinox from now on, try to banish the unworthy cowardice from his veins. But, he realised, it would mean breaking up with Toxica to be truly like an Equinox. Perhaps Aurora Invicta was still willing to consider marriage to him. She would make a far better wife to him than Toxica, after all: she was incredibly beautiful, very noble and graceful, clever, kind, everything. She was the ideal partner to him, he reasoned, so it only made sense. So why was his heart objecting so strongly to it?

–

AUTHOR'S NOTES: I wanted to get this chapter up by sunday, but the proofreading took longer than expected and I've had very little time for it since because of university starting this week. So things are still going somewhat slowly.

We've met Gaius before, briefly, in chapters 52 and 53, but this is the first time he's really getting much to say.

FEEDBACK: redafromidget: Q: I like Lucius. He reminds me of a good friend of mine who appears mean and judgemental but is actually a good guy.

A: I'm glad you like him, I quite like him too. Though the good guy is debatable, personally I consider his alignment to be true neutral (Which compares to chaotic good for Boreas, neutral good for Octa and Toxica (maybe you'd expect lawful good for Octa, and he probably would claim to be that too. But the truth is, he's too intelligent to be lawful good, and when rules, tradition, order, or his principles collide with doing what's right, he'll always do the right thing, really), chaotic neutral for Selene, and Aqua as well earlier in the story (after the character development she had she became chaotic goodish).

TrueBolt: Q: No one was left out in this chapter. Selene found saw the fireworks, Lucius fell asleep, Toxica woke Black up, Black showed understanding of the poke language, Aqua loved Boreas, Octa was down in the dumps, and all from Boreas's POV. All in all: Great chapter if I do say so myself. (Which I just did. :3)

A: Thank you. Lucius did make a bigger contribution than just falling asleep, though: he invited Selene and Boreas to stay on the team after their victory.

Q: My suggestion here would be so set a course for another region, and to a sequal. Maybe. If you end up wanting to. You already have the tital: 'The Suprising Adventures Of A Glaceon In *******'

A: No. While I might do a sequel, I can certainly tell you it won't be called The Surprising Adventures of a Glaceon in Kanto, The Surprising Adventures of a Glaceon in Hoenn, The Surprising Adventures of a Glaceon in Norway, or The Surprising Adventures of a Glaceon on the Moon, or anything like that, nor will it be a journey fic like this. It's also unwise to assume any sequel would contain Boreas at all, considering – {rest of reply deleted for massive ending spoilers}

Q: Easy shmeasy. You made a character that I for one will want to see more of.

A: Thank you, I'm glad to hear that.

Q: You're to atatched to all of the characters now to kill one of them off. I know how bad it hurt to kill Kapella. I know you're pain. I know you're anguish... I know where you live... O_o LOL Nonono. No stalker. But that's my bet.

A: It's true, it did hurt to kill Capella off, but overall it was a good thing. So don't count on me being merciful. :)

Q: Eat some food yo. It's good for you. It shall keep you alive. Id dose that to me at least...

A: Good advice.

Q: On an off-off topic, how was you're vacation? The Sound Of Music made Austria look amasing. Go sky diving off the mountains much? XD What all happened there? What did you eat? O_O Tell us all...

A: Austria is indeed a wonderful country. It's mountainy all over, of course, and while I didn't skydive off them, I did walk a lot and went abseiling once. The mountains where I was were unfortunately not high enough to have snow on them in August (or at least not any more thanks to global warming), but it was still very nice. Almost broke my legs twice when I fell on a very rough path, but nothing too bad ended up happening fortunately, and the waterfall I eventually found there was definitely worth it. As for eating, I ate all kinds of things, but as for real Austrian things, I've had cheesefondue and apfelstrudel and... Well, I guess that's it.

UNKNOWN: Q: Austria, huh? Traveling does make writing easier on the nerves and is great inspiration, no?

A: It does indeed, it's quite fun to write while travelling... Though while editing I've found my writing quality greatly decreases, probably because of my tiny laptop screen letting me see very little of what I'm writing and keeping little overview.

Q: I really didn't expect for OCTA to give up. Heck, I know I would. If the games were as difficult as this, I would just put the DS down for a while and go play something extremely simple, such as, say, Call of Duty. Then retry about two hours later only to get my a55 kicked again and repeat the cycle until I can't play anymore, real life events catch up to me, or until I actually achieve something of worth in the game. But Selene, seriously, you are a GENIUS!

A: Yeah, I don't suppose this kind of difficulty would work well in a game. The kind of difficulty characters in books or movies face would really not work that well in games in general, because many plots tend to involve thousand-to-one chances. Plus, I guess having making your way through Victory Road without starving and/or freezing be part of the game would be a rather odd challenge.

Q: Now it suddenly makes sense as to why the player is like, the only challenger throughout the storyline. If only Black had that magical backpack from the games which can store anything of any quantity... I mean, if Pokemon have a pocket dimention inside pokeballs I'm sure a dimensional backpack is possible. And I always imagined that Pokemon actually had their own TV room or entertainment room in their Pokeball, before getting called out of there to fight for their trainer, instead of just floating around aimlessly. Who knows, maybe LuxuryBalls have all of that!

A: Yeah, Victory Road works as a filter allowing the Elite Four to do other things than battling upstarts all the time, I guess. And as for the backpack and the pokéballs, some things in pokémon just really don't make sense when transferred to a story-medium, so I prefer to gloss over them as much as possible. Nonetheless, the infinite backpack really would be very handy...

Q: You've probably been asked this like ten times but... maybe a sequel is possible to fit around the events of BW2?

A: No. Any sequel there might be certainly won't be about BW2. The story really just makes it impossible to do, particularly the ending I'm planning.

The Bulbafinatic: Q: Would a Pokémon ever die in a battle between two trainers? Not the type of battle like the ones with the Sages, where the Sages are attempting to kill to win, since the person is planning to stop them from doing something that brings the worst out of the region, but a battle like that between a Gym Leader and a trainer who challenges him / her.

A: Well, it's possible, but they don't try to kill each other. Compare it to martial arts; an accident can happen, and so it's possible for someone to be killed, but it's not very likely since it's regulated and the contenders aren't trying to kill each other in the first place.

Sonosublime: Q: Hell yes, they made it to the league. I'm looking forward to some awesome battles.

And congrats on making it this far - the final part of the story, right? i get the feeling it's going to be pretty epic.

A: Thanks, I hope it doesn't disappoint.


	65. Light and Darkness

Chapter Sixty-Five: Light and Darkness

The day of their challenge came rapidly. It seemed like one moment they had days of training left, but the next moment it suddenly was the evening before their first battle. No-one spoke much, tense as they all were. Every hour that passed on the final day went far too quick. There were twenty hours left... Then suddenly only seventeen, sixteen, fourteen, eleven, ten, nine hours left. After a night of very little sleep it was time to begin their challenge. Octa felt like his blood had frozen, his heart having to pound heavily to make it circulate at all. It felt like his chloroplasts didn't process any light, frozen with dread.

After having his badges checked a second time, Black was admitted into the northern half of the League. It was very quiet here as they left behind the modern architecture of the southern parts of the League and approached the five towers, while Team Plasma's castle enveloped them more and more. All five of the towers were part of the same building, a huge round, open complex supported by enormous columns. Once they were inside Octa was awed by the magnificence, and yet the simplicity of the great hall. There were four staircases leading to the towers, and a single statue in the middle of the hall. There were words engraved upon it:

'Five great warriors form this Pokémon League. To the north-west is one who has mastered the dark-type. To the south-west is one who does not fear the ghost-type. To the south-east is one who channels the power of the fighting-type. To the north-east is one who knows the mind of the psychic-type. One who can defeat these warriors with one's courage and wisdom shall be led to the summit, where the Champion awaits.'

They took the stairs at the back of the hall to their left, leaving the great hall. The light dimmed soon as they climbed into Grimsley's tower, until they were in utter darkness. The stairs ended and they carefully took a few more steps forward when a bright, fiery light enveloped them and the ground started moving at the same time. Most of them lost their balance and fell, but quickly recovered. They were on a crimson conveyor belt that was covered in red carpet. It went up and around a bend, and a torch lit as they passed it. The conveyor belt moved them up and around, and more torches lit as they passed. They saw more of Grimsley's tower as they got higher and the light increased: it was a gorgeous, ornate room that reminded Octa both of home and an 18th century theatre. It was clearly decorated by a man with style.

The conveyor belt took them higher and higher, and after two large circles they had reached a platform. A gigantic chandelier above flared up and bathed the tower in orange light. There was a black sofa on the other side of the platform, and on it the pokémon master himself sat, looking proud and gentlemanly, yet at the same time bored and slightly lazy, slouching a little. He had blue hair with two large spikes of it pointing up above each ear, and wore neat black and red clothing. He had a long yellow scarf that hung onto the ground.

"You?!" exclaimed Black. "What did you do to Grimsley?!"

Sly laughed. "If it isn't Black from Nuvema Town! I had never expected to see you here. But to answer your question: you're looking at him."

"No, I'm not," said Black sourly. "I'm looking at Sly, a petty thief and kleptomaniac from Nacrene City."

"It's true," chuckled Sly, "I did that a while ago, it was quite funny. But allow me to reintroduce myself: my name is Grimsley, and Grimsley means me."

"We're supposed to believe Grimsley of the Elite Four is some common thief?" scoffed Octa.

"Not a common one!" Grimsley pointed out, clearly understanding him. "A master thief, if you please. Because I make sure I am a master in everything I do, and what I do is whatever is fun. It's important to master the cards you hold in your hand. Master thief Grimsley, master gambler, pokémon master, master of the dark-type."

"And master liar," said Black. "The game is up, Sly. Where is the real Grimsley?"

"I already told you. I wouldn't be here if I wasn't him. And you wouldn't be here if you hadn't challenged us. So you have a simple choice: fight me or surrender."

"Fine then, I'll believe you're Grimsley. For now. But if you are: why did you stop me from battling N? Surely you must see Plasma is a threat?"

"Not to me," boasted Grimsley. "They can't steal my pokémon, so why would they be a threat to me? Besides, it's more fun to test your prowess in battle first. That's my right as the first member of the Elite Four."

"Maybe it is, but what about all the trainers who have been separated from their pokémon, or even killed, because of Team Plasma?"

"What about them?" Grimsley shrugged. "Bad luck. They're not my concern."

"But-"

"I'm going to battle you. Now! While I'd rather fight properly, the League forces me to battle according to certain rules. So we'll each use six pokémon, one at a time, there will be no substitutions, no items, and no fighting when a pokémon is no longer fit for battle. Honchkrow, begin!"

"You have a Honchkrow too, huh?" laughed Black. "Selene, show it you're best!"

Selene flew up to meet the Honchkrow as it soared through the air. They both floated for a moment, then Grimsley's Honchkrow suddenly made a viciously sharp downward turn and loop, swooping by Selene like a black, feathered lightning bolt. She fell down in a spiral and hit the ground. The others gasped in shock as Grimsley laughed. "You're fighting the Elite Four now, Black! The time for playing games is over."

"That was a cheap shot!" snarled Aqua as she rushed forward. "But I'm not dropping my guard around you!"

The Honchkrow laughed as it made a quick turn to dodge a beam of water. "Cheap shots are what dark-types are all about, you silly girl. Stay in the light if the dark scares you!"

Octa decided not to point out her boyfriend used cheap shots all the time to great effect. He wondered whether she really did care for Selene and want them to win or was just pretending. Though Boreas' assurance she was on their side was a strong argument against it, he still bore some suspicion; while Boreas was the best friend he had ever had, he had been known to be wrong. He dearly hoped the Glaceon was right about Aqua, though, as the thought of his dear friend having to go through her betrayal was even more dreadful than the fear his family might expel him.

That thought was a surprise to Octa, but he realised it was true: he really had come to care more for Boreas than for his family, or possibly even for Toxica. Their friendship had come a very long way since Octa had rescued a little Eevee cub.

A loud clanging noise awoke him from thought: Aqua had finally hit the Honchkrow, along with the chandelier. Fortunately the chandelier didn't shatter or fall down, but the Honchkrow wasn't so lucky. A wave of water formed around Aqua and slammed into her enemy as she pounced it. She yelped when the Honchkrow stabbed her with its sharp beak, but it couldn't fly away, heavy with water, and was defeated soon.

Grimsley laughed as he switched out for a Liepard. "Not bad, it seems you do have some strength! This will be fun."

As the Liepard appeared it made a little bow, saluting Aqua. The Vaporeon returned the gesture, and Liepard immediately flew at her, its claws stretched out, giving her eight deep red cuts into her side.

"Hey!" Boreas shouted angrily. "Aqua'll get you for that!"

Aqua reacted with similar anger and tried to capture her opponent in jets of boiling water. Octa thought Liepards were quite weak pokémon, but this one clearly wasn't: it nimbly dodged Aqua's attacks and, despite her own speed, occasionally clawed her. Boreas cheered her on, and Octa saw the completely smitten look on his friend's face. It would shatter him if she turned out to be a traitor. Octa sighed as she managed to inflict some damage on the Liepard with a beam of water. Things had been so much easier before she had suddenly dropped into Boreas' life nearly a year ago. Though it was great to see his friend so happy with her, it was also painful to see him hurt, and occasionally a little annoying how irrational it made him act and how much time he spent with her. Cold fury filled Octa's mind. If Aqua was just using Boreas to spy on them, if she was about to hurt the Glaceon so terribly... Lucius would be the least of her problems.

Octa became aware he had been staring angrily at Aqua only a moment after she felt his eyes burning with the stare his family had perfected so long ago. She succumbed to a nearly irresistible urge to turn around and look him in the eyes, and though Octa realised his mistake and quickly looked elsewhere, the momentary distraction was all the Liepard needed. Aqua screamed with pain as its claws dug into her. Her gleaming blue fur was rapidly stained with red blood.

"You'll pay for hurting her!" roared Boreas.

But Black said: "No! This is not the time to get angry, someone else switch in instead; Toxica, you go!"

But Boreas wasn't about to take no for an answer. Octa immediately wrapped around the advancing Glaceon, blocking his view as well so he wouldn't be able to use his ice attacks. "Calm down, my dear fellow! This is an official battle, we'll be disqualified if you and Toxica both switch in!"

Boreas squirmed against his grip. "Then I'll fight, that Liepard hurt Aqua!"

Octa sighed, having experienced this a bit too often with his hot-blooded friend. "Calm down, my dear fellow, Toxica is already fighting. If she retreats, we'll be another pokémon behind. And what's more: you're in no mood to fight. It's daft to fight with your mind clouded with anger in any case, but against a dark-type? Being a trickster yourself, you should realise just how stupid that is."

That seemed to get through to him. "If I let you go, will you do something idiotic?" asked Octa.

"No," sighed Boreas, "I suppose you're right. I'll go take care of Aqua instead, I guess."

Octa let go of his friend and watched Toxica fight. To his shock she already had large cuts in her flower as well as in her body, leaking saps and blood. But not all was lost, as her flower was brimming with energy absorbed from the light. If she could make the Liepard stand still for a moment...

Toxica threw small Energy Balls from her hands. Octa wondered how much they would hurt Liepard even if she managed to hit it, but then realised they weren't meant for hitting, but for chasing: Liepard had been content to effortlessly dodge the Energy Balls, making Toxica waste her energy, but hadn't realised it had reached the platform's edge. It was too agile to just fall off the edge when it dodged and found no ground under one of its feet, of course, but it was still unbalanced for a moment. Toxica immediately aimed her flower at it, and Octa shut his eyes. His eyelids lit up bright orange seen from inside and he sighed in delight at the sudden influx of light to his chloroplasts. It was over a moment later, and Octa opened his eyes to see the Liepard completely scorched by Toxica's Solarbeam and everyone else rubbing their eyes. He applauded and cheered. "Splendid, my darling, simply splendid!"

She smiled happily at him, though he could see her weariness as well; Solarbeam was a very exhausting move. She winked, and Octa felt his heart beat in his chest and his leaves curl. It was with pain he remembered he was planning to break up with her. He couldn't bear to look her in the eyes.

"Good job, that's my two weakest down. Now let's see what you can do against Drapion!"

Octa's hope sank into his tail as he saw a monstrous purple scorpion appear. It wasn't much bigger than Toxica, but it had a terrifying presence that made it seem far larger. Octa felt an almost instinctive rush to draw his blade and jump between Toxica and the monster. He slithered a bit forward and put his hand on his blade before he halted himself. He winced in horror as Drapion's teeth burst into flame and it tried to bite Toxica. She jumped back but it swung its tail at her, slamming hard into one of her petals and piercing it. A noxious green fluid spread there. Octa could hardly restrain himself.

"Not so easy, is it?" said Boreas unhappily. Octa merely nodded, wincing at the effect it had on Toxica. She tried valiantly to fight back, but her attacks were useless and she was clearly hurt badly by the poison. Drapion made its final strike with its claws, and Toxica was defeated. Octa wanted to step in to defeat the Drapion, but as a grass-type he recognised he stood little chance against it. It was Lucius' turn instead as Octa took care of Toxica.

He jumped into the fray, spitting waves of fire that made an uncontrollable shiver run over Octa's spine. He suppressed the rest of his instinctive fear for fire, as he didn't want to give Lucius the silly idea he was scared of him. He was the single person on the team Octa just didn't like, after all. Though Selene could be rather annoying, Lucius was simply an unpleasant, uncivilised git; though Octa dearly hoped he could defeat Drapion now. He couldn't understand that Boreas seemed to almost like Lucius at times. But he supposed Boreas was more like him than Octa himself was; both lacking a certain respect. But while Boreas was shrewd and kind, Lucius was a simpleton lacking all grace.

Drapion jumped at Lucius, its pincers snapping at his head and neck, but the Houndoom jumped aside rapidly and tried to respond with a Flamethrower. Drapion swung its tail as it missed, impacting Lucius hard with a triumphant growl. Lucius yelped in pain as his shoulder was wounded and dug his teeth deep into the tail. Bleeding heavily, the Drapion tried to smash Lucius with one of its claws, only to find the fire-type's paws holding it back with similarly great strength while he belched a great torrent of fire right into the scorpion's face. A high-pitched squeal like a pig being roasted alive came from the Drapion as it let go of Lucius and fell down.

Lucius howled triumphantly, his mouth still running with the Drapion's blue blood and his poisoned shoulder with his own red blood. "_Now_ who's the stronger dark-type, punk?!" he roared as Black and Boreas cheered. Octa found himself softly applauding Lucius. After all it had been quite impressive.

Octa realised the Drapion was only acting just too late, at the precise moment it knocked Lucius out from behind. "I am," it said in a voice like gravel scraping over metal.

Octa winced. "Oh dear... My dear fellow, don't lose your temper; we cannot afford to lose another fight..."

Boreas nodded as he grimly stepped forward to face the burnt and bleeding Drapion. Only two of them remaining against four powerful enemies... Octa pondered that their challenge could be over with this very first battle. Black was biting his fingernails nervously. "Oof..." muttered Aqua, waking up again. "How are we doing? Any better than I am personally?"

Lucius had already wounded Drapion pretty badly, and so Boreas didn't have a very difficult first fight. It clumsily staggered towards him, and took only a few Ice Beams to be defeated. Boreas didn't let his eyes leave the fallen Drapion until Grimsley returned it to its pokéball.

"Slightly better now... Three of them left contra two of us."

Grimsley threw a pokéball, and out came a bipedal lizard whose outer skin hung around its hips like baggy pants. It had a flat face with a permanently stupid expression that put Octa at ease. "Oh, it's only a Scrafty. Boreas can handle a dimwitted creature like that."

"Don't you think that's a little arrogant?" asked Aqua snidely.

"I hardly think so; methinks Boreas is quite a capable Glaceon. Do you not have confidence in his ability?"

The battle between them began with Boreas firing two Ice Beams at Scrafty, but the lizard nimbly ducked under them and rapidly ran at Boreas on all fours, its head aimed at the Glaceon like a battering ram. He couldn't get out of the way quite fast enough and was hit in the shoulder, launching the fox off his feet, spinning rapidly. It wasn't all bad, though, since Boreas had the wits to create cold around him as he spun through the air, instantly making a powerful, rapidly rotating storm that threw Scrafty away. Both combatants landed poorly, needing a moment to recover from it.

"Of course I do," said Aqua worriedly. "But it's arrogant to assume the Scrafty is stupid because its face is..."

Octa said nothing, unwilling to admit his mistake to her. Boreas raised himself back on three legs with a pained expression, while Scrafty got up a bit more nimbly and ran at him quickly. Boreas immediately fired an Ice Beam upwards, to the chandelier, hitting the chain that held it up. Octa expected the huge glass chandelier to drop and crush the charging Scrafty, but it just hung there. Then Octa realised why: since metal contained no water, it didn't snap-freeze like many other substances. It would get brittle due to the electrons giving it its elasticity settling down, but it was still as strong...

Boreas discovered this bit of physics in the form of a massive punch heading his way. Octa saw him try to stop it with his Frost Concussion, but the Brick Break wasn't stopped or delayed but hit him very hard, right in the face. Octa winced and Aqua gasped as Boreas made a half somersault from the force of the punch, landing on his back, seemingly defeated. But somehow he rolled out of the way of a finishing kick, blasted an Ice Beam right into his foe's face and, as the lizard howled out in pain and grasped his face, fired another one at his stomach.

Then however it seemed Boreas had to rest after the powerful punch into his face, and this gave Scrafty time to recover as well. They were on their feet again at the same time, though Boreas' bruised face looked worse than Scrafty's frostbitten one. Boreas enveloped himself in a snowstorm and ran at the lizard, but at the very same moment Scrafty jumped high into the air, far too high ever to hit Boreas. Boreas skidded to a halt and tried to run back, away from the chandelier: Scrafty jumped right by the frozen part of the chain holding it up and punched the brittle metal.

The chandelier fell terrifyingly in what almost seemed to be slow-motion. Boreas' desperate scrambling away was futile, the chandelier fell too fast. Octa let out a brief scream of horror for his friend's impending doom descending upon him in that special way only a huge glass chandelier can. Only Black's quick reaction saved Boreas, as he disappeared just before the chandelier crashed into the ground like a meteorite striking the Earth. It shattered into a million pieces of glass flying everywhere with a tremendous roar. Octa found a thin film of water protecting him and the others, stopping some of the glass and slowing the rest of it down to safer speeds. He gratefully nodded to Aqua.

Boreas reappeared looking very shocked. "Outwitted by a fighting-type..." he gasped.

"And nearly killed," Octa added with equal shock. "But do not forget 'tis a dark-type as well. I made the mistake of underestimating it; a mistake I shall not readily make again." _Which is why I know the odds of my victory are smaller than an atom suffering from dwarf-growth._

He slithered forward and used two vines to sweep away the shards ahead of him. He regretted his lack of legs now, realising this would be far easier as a Servine. Scrafty had not just defeated Boreas: he had made manoeuvring as good as impossibly for Octa. "Impressive," he complimented his enemy, who seemed in no hurry to get into melee in its weakened state.

Octa further extended his vines, reaching out to his opponent. It jumped away, seemingly trying to use the semi-darkness that filled the tower now that its main source of light lay in a million pieces, but Octa had no problem seeing it jump around. He caught it with his vines, and quickly drained the struggling lizard of what little energy it had left after Boreas. But now, he knew, came the difficult part.

Or perhaps not, as Grimsley sent out a Krookodile. Octa didn't like that one bit: while it was possible Grimsley sent out the Krookodile because his other remaining pokémon was also at a type disadvantage, it seemed more likely it was part of some scheme. Perhaps the idea was to make Octa underestimate his opponent, or maybe just to soften him up for the final pokémon. Or perhaps there was some other kind of trick. Octa felt apprehensive and worried. Victory depended solely on him now...

As the large, bipedal crocodile rapidly ran at him, Octa grabbed it with his vines and began draining its energy. The ground trembled with its every step, and glass near its feet, and probably under them as well, shattered to dust. Krookodile kept going, despite Octa draining its energy. He drew his Leaf Blade as he realised his opponent was going to reach him, and tried to parry its attack as it pounced him, claws and jaws spread and roaring like a madman. Octa parried one heavy claw with his Leaf Blade, but a phenomenal force knocked the blade out of his hand and sent it flying. Impacts like a collision with a sharpened train hit Octa, he was bitten with such force the pain was dull and sharp at the same time, and a crushing impact launched him. He squealed in pain as he landed on the scattered glass, and weakly struggled to keep his head away from the ground.

Krookodile raged and ran at him again, and he did something he hadn't done in a while: he made a Leaf Tornado. His increased power since he was a Servine, however, made it much more powerful: a phenomenal gale with sharpened leaves stormed over the battlefield, blowing most torches out and pelting Krookodile with leaves and glass as it swept the nearly-dark battlefield mostly clean. Krookodile struggled against the Leaf Storm to try and reach Octa, but it was powerless with the sharpened leaves and shards of glass cutting it. As it fell down, Octa stopped the storm and panted, exhausted from the powerful move. He grabbed his Leaf Blade and fervently hoped the final pokémon would be weak.

"Good, good!" laughed Grimsley. "This is more fun than I thought! Let's finish it, Bisharp!"

A red, metallic figure like a living suit of armour from another planet's mediaeval period appeared. It had large, sharpened claws on the ends of its arms and a ridge on its head that looked like it could cut through steel. Two tiny eyes seemed the only part of the man-high creature that was made of flesh and blood.

"A steel-type," groaned Octa, "and I'm already so weary..." He held his blade in front of his face as a salute, then crossed blades with his opponent. He felt its strength reverberate through his weary, wounded body, but could handle it for the moment. He immediately redirected his blade to stop the attack of the other arm. They fenced rapidly, Octa's single Leaf Blade against two metal ones. It was an obvious disadvantage, and he almost never had time to attack, having to parry two blades. He could've made a second Leaf Blade, but since he had no experience fighting with two blades it seemed a very bad idea.

Octa had to slide back constantly, yielding terrain to dodge and parry his stronger, two-bladed opponent. He tried to strike Bisharp from behind with his tail, but it nimbly sidestepped. However, that gave Octa an opening to attack, and so he stabbed his blade, pushing the attempt to block it away, and hit the Bisharp right in the chest. To as good as no effect. Its strong armour held back Octa's blade, and he had to parry attacks immediately again, in the knowledge his own skin certainly wouldn't do the same to metal blades. Parrying several attacks from alternating sides each second, Octa tried to aim for his enemy's eyes whenever he had a chance to attack, but Bisharp protected them well. If you have only one weak spot to protect, you get quite good at that.

Octa was exhausted, panting heavily, and his muscles hurt. He began to slow down, and received a few small cuts from poorly-parried attacks. Suddenly he nearly fell off the platform's edge as he dodged back another attack. His enemy had him cornered. But an idea popped up in Octa's mind. He made a wild stab to his enemy's left eye, trying not to let the severe flash of pain as his enemy punished him with a deep gash with one blade while blocking with the other stop him. His enemy stepped closer to the edge as it parried, and Octa followed up with another careless lunge that Bisharp easily parried. But as it did so, it shifted its balance, and Octa's tail hit its back hard at the same moment. After a single moment of uncertainty, Bisharp plummeted over the edge with a metallic cry.

Octa was almost unable to believe it was over. They had _actually_ defeated a member of the Elite Four! A part of him inside simply nodded and smiled and said "of course I did, I'm of the house Equinox." Another part of him, however, a long-repressed part of self-doubt and fear, couldn't believe he had duelled an Elite Four's Bisharp while wounded and came out the victor. A part of him felt ashamed that this had looked like a beautiful civilised hall of a nobleman before the battle and now looked like a barbarian horde had ransacked the place. And finally there was a part of him that just wanted to scream at the deep cuts he'd received executing his little plan. He was tired and hurt enough that he'd most like to just lay down, but he desired to keep his dignity and instead calmly sheathed his blade and said "I believe we are victorious."

–

"...But then the giant chandelier came down, just as I was about to defeat it! Of course, I saw it coming and was already running out of the way to safety, but just as I was about to jump out of the way... Black returned me to my pokéball. Otherwise I'd have easily beaten that Scrafty. But he thought I was about to die, so it's alright really. Besides, it gave Octa a chance to show off his mad skills with the sword. I mean, their swords were flashing so fast it was hard to follow it with your eyes when he fought that Bisharp! Octa, tell us about it again."

Octa was shaken from thought by Boreas' request to continue the tale. He had told it five times already, but enjoyed it every time... However, he was rather preoccupied right now, and not really enjoying their little victory celebration any more. He quickly finished his drink. "Hmm? Why don't you tell it, my dear fellow? I think I shall be calling it a night, for we have another battle to fight tomorrow and 'tis late already."

"Aww..." pouted Boreas. "But I guess you're right about that. We should be getting to bed..." He suddenly grabbed and kissed Aqua. "But that's no reason to stop celebrating, is it?"

"You're right," giggled Aqua, "we should have a little private celebration..."

"Well, have fun then, but don't keep each other up too long, you'll need your rest for tomorrow." Octa and the others left to go to their own rooms. Challengers were given quite luxurious accommodations at the League, as every pokémon had a room of their own. Lucius and Selene quickly disappeared to their own rooms, but Toxica walked along with him. "Kinda cute, innit," she giggled, "seeing them so happy together. I don't suppose Aqua's room will be slept in tonight..."

Octa, rather preoccupied, simply said: "Hmm. I suppose it won't..."

In a low, flirtatious voice, she continued: "And what about my room? Do you suppose it will be slept in?"

They had arrived at Octa's room, but his conscience forbade him from letting Toxica come in with him while he considered dumping her, though the celebratory alcohol in his blood thought it was a great idea. "My apologies, my darling, but I want to rest for tomorrow's battle. For while our victory today was impressive, this was but the first of five battles we have to win. So methinks 'tis better if we sleep in our own rooms and rest well."

"Well... We don't need to... 'Celebrate'. It would be very nice just to sleep together, cuddling. Literally just sleeping together, I mean."

"My apologies, but I really think we should sleep in our own rooms tonight." Octa took Toxica's hand and kissed it. "Goodnight." He entered his room and shut the door, sighing.

"You made a wise choice," said a voice.

"Entei's entrails!" cursed Octa. "Gaius! What in the name of Jirachi's little toe are you doing here?"

Gaius smiled. "I'm simply visiting my brother, and I'm about to congratulate him on a battle well-fought. I thought it best to speak to you in this manner, for I do not believe your friends like me very much, though this is partially my own fault for losing my temper."

"I'm afraid it is," said Octa, recovering from the shock.

"But enough about that. I wish to congratulate you. I truly believed you were going to lose, but you actually managed to defeat three opponents on your own. I'm proud of you, little brother: you showed the true skill and spirit of Equinox today. I must be honest with you: I had begun to doubt the strength of your blood. Evidently I was mistaken in my doubt, and I hope you can forgive me for that."

"No, you weren't." Octa sighed, realising this was the time to tell someone about his failure. "I dishonoured myself on Victory Road, Gaius..." He told his brother how he had cowardly given up hope, and his wish to increase the strength in his blood and even his idea to become more like his ancestors by following their ways... Including dumping Toxica.

Gaius smiled friendlily. "My brother, you are still a true Equinox. However, you are one who has strayed away from our traditions and rules by courting a commoner and disobeying his family. 'Tis to be expected such transgressions would cause your splendour to fade. However, I do not believe your mistake is irreversible. 'Tis time you listened to the wisdom of the family, Octa. Toxica may be quite decent, for a commoner, but she does not deserve you. Your courtship has to end, and the sooner the better, for the fate of Unova rests on your leaves."

It pained Octa, but he knew his brother was right. Yet it was so final now that he had told his solution to Gaius... At least he could've backed out of it without anyone knowing before. "Yes," he sighed. "I know it has to..."

–

AUTHOR'S NOTES: Well, that's one Elite Four down. And, incidentally, the very first time we've had a 6 vs. 6 battle. At least, one according to the rules, as most of the other full party battles were quite different. I hope it was interesting enough, and if it wasn't, do say so. I can try to think of a different way to portray the other Elite Four battles if this isn't working.

Grimsley's team is his rematch team, except I swapped out Sharpedo for Honchkrow (which he has in the rematches in Black&White2), because water-types are rather awkward in a story like this. In game they may be content to just float around in air as if it's water, but there'd have to be some kind of pool for it in my story, which really wouldn't work well in Grimsley's room.

I wonder how many of you guessed Sly was Grimsley... I got two or three comments of people who had guessed it, but other than them, I'm not sure.

–

FEEDBACK: UNKNOWN: Q: And we're here at the big leagues. After all that's happened, do we give up now? Hell no! We get back out there and we kick some a55! That's what we do!

A: Exactly!

Q: I lol'd hard at Suprising Adventures of a Glaceon on the Moon. But no Boreas?

A: Well, I didn't say he wouldn't be there, I just said it was unwise to make the assumption he would be. I'm not spoiling things either way.

Q: This is very interesting because I have no clue how you can fit an ending together in B&W without BW2 being possible.

A: Really? It seems quite easy to me. Why, with Drayden being dead that's already one small part of it impossible due to him being the seventh Gym Leader in the sequels. Anyway, then it will indeed be interesting to see how you like the ending unfolding.

Q: This story kind of got me to try out a Glaceon on my team, and I must say, I don't regret it. Hail/Blizzard/Shadow Ball/Ice Beam combo works wonders.

A: Yeah, Glaceon can really do some neat damage, and loves hail. I happen to have one with a strong ground-type Hidden Power, which allows it to hit steel-types and fire-types hard as well.

Q: Kinda random question: are all of Black's team your downright favorites to use or were each of them on your teams throughout the generations?

A: Well, they're sort of my favourites. All are pokémon I like, and have been my favourite at times, though they aren't all still my favourites. Glaceon is my favourite pokémon, though, and Snivy my favourite starter (though I'm not that fond of Serperior compared to Snivy and Servine, and considered having Octa never evolve). Houndoom used to be my favourite, and I still quite like it. I've greatly liked Vileplume (as well as Victreebel) for a long time too, though I don't use it that much. Dragonite is my favourite pseudolegendary, and I often got myself a Dratini in Goldenrod City in Silver version to get one early (which isn't nearly as powerful as you'd think... Aside from the evolution on level 55, Dratini levels 20% slower than most other pokémon. You'd think only 20% doesn't matter that much, but it is really very noticable, making it hard to train). Murkrow is not specifically a favourite of mine, but it's another one of generation II's dark-types, which I've all loved since Silver and Gold came out, and I consider most of the dark-types added since a bit of a letdown after them (with some exceptions). I like Vaporeon a lot, like all of the other Eevees.

Q: ...I think I'm the only one who thought of Black vs. Red, right? Hmmm... I wonder... Boreas or Pikachu?

A: Well, I hadn't thought of that. And Boreas can handle any overrated electric rat, even one of as high level as Red's. Red's other pokémon would make their toughest challenge yet, though. Red would probably win.

TrueBolt: Q: So... Big scarry castle

A: The castle has no scars on it. :p

Q: This story needs a theam song. (It really needs me to quit futily looking for VA's and just record me reading it...) I've noticed that a lot of fanfics now have theamsongs bassed off of them. It would be cool if someone did a song for this fic. Although to be fair, you don't see a lot of fan music from the pokefandom, where as it's filling YouTube from the MLP fandom. I dunno. Pokefans should do more in my oppinion. :3

A: An interesting idea. But I have van Gogh's ear for music, and can't make one at all. Though it does remind me of someone on deviantArt asking whether any of my characters had theme songs, and I responded Octa and his family have the The Realm of Gondor theme from The Lord of the Rings ( youtube dot com slash watch?v=h_JfHLs2Nc4 ) as their theme.

Q: I love nature. It's so epic. I may have to end up going to Austria now. XD

A: Well, it's a lovely country, so I can certainly recommend it. I'm heavily considering going to Sweden next year myself.

Q: On a side note, (Which contains ONLY my forced oppinion, and is reliivent to this story in absolutly no way...) I started going to a chiropractor. Why am I telling you this you ask? Well, it's because I'm going to a special type of chiropractor called a 'Correctional Chiropractor'. Through them I learned that if you're backbone is even slightly out of allinment, it can affect anything from eye sight, to alergies. Crazy right?

A: Well, it makes some sense, considering the backbone contains the only part of the central nervous system that's not tucked away safely in your skull. So while the allergies do sound a little unlikely, considering they're caused by the immune system, I can certainly see the other things you mentioned being helped by it.


	66. Courage and Fear

Chapter Sixty-Six: Courage and Fear

Diego was annoyed with himself. He had just watched a recording of Black's battle with Grimsley, and found himself rooting for Black. He had told himself it was just because he looked forward to defeating him and his pokémon personally, and even believed it. But then, the chandelier had fallen on top of Boreas, and Diego had actually been shocked and horrified. Somewhere inside his mind, the Flareon he had pretended to be for two months had cried out in shock at the apparent death of his brother, and then sighed in relief when it turned out he wasn't dead after all.

Diego was really beginning to hate his oh so clever plan to spy on the enemy by infiltrating them himself. Boreas' early memories that had been implanted into his mind, as well as the long time he'd spent playing Zeph, had made him weak and treacherous. In a way, Zeph was still inside his mind, making him doubt Team Plasma's cause and making him like Boreas. It would be easy enough to let Ryoku's Exeggutor remove the memories if he asked it to, but that would mean actually showing his mind to it, and in its current state showing his mind to anyone was the last thing he wanted. Exeggutor would be obligated to tell Ryoku, and then Ghetsis would learn of his weakness and probably think his friend was no longer loyal to him. Which was nonsense, of course: Diego's true self was unquestioningly loyal. Yet he felt a little spark of anger towards Ghetsis now as he remembered how much the enemy hated him and the other Sages and how much suffering he had caused. Diego was ashamed at his misguided anger towards the human who had saved his life, cared for him, became his friend, who had made him such an instrumental part of his plans.

He paced the corridors of Team Plasma's castle restlessly as he had these conflicting thoughts, and found himself wandering into N's throne room. "Diego!" greeted the human happily. "How did Black's battle go? I take it he won?"

N had been spending most of his time in the huge throne room since they had returned to the castle. Diego found it quite funny how seriously he took his role as king, even though he was no more than a figurehead. Yet he also felt a bit sorry for his friend. He was so misguided and naïve, thinking he was fighting for pokémon liberation when he was really fighting for Team Plasma's true goals. Diego nodded grimly. "He did."

"Of course he did; a battle between Reshiram and Zekrom will happen to decide who's right once and for all." N noticed Diego's troubled state. "Don't worry, Diego, this is meant to happen. Black defeating Grimsley is not a bad thing. It's unavoidable, since he'll eventually fight me."

N misunderstood Diego's worries, but that was probably for the better. "N, do you ever wonder if we're fighting for the wrong side?" Diego heard someone say. He realised with shock it was him.

"Well, not really. How could liberating pokémon be wrong? Yet, if it somehow is, Reshiram will defeat Zekrom, and then we'll know. But I'm almost sure that won't happen. We'll win and prove our righteousness once and for all."

Diego forced a smile. "Of course. You know, I've got some things to do, so I'll see you later."

Diego left the throne room quickly. _Idiot, _he thought. _Naïve idiot. He really thinks we're fighting to liberate pokémon. Well, I guess it's true in the sense that pokémon will be equals to humans when we win..._

_But that's just what I've thought him to think like. We need him naïve. But what's wrong with _me_? Asking something so treacherous? What if someone else had heard me? What if it makes N doubt our cause? I know what I'll have to do if he turns on us, and it's not something I'd enjoy..._

But he could do it. He remembered what he'd done one day on Victory Road when he had been vexed by similar thoughts and wondered if he'd turned weak. He grinned as he remembered it and realised that when push came to shove, he would show no mercy to any enemy. It had felt as if he'd taken the thoughts he had come to think of as Zeph by the throat with an iron fist and strangled them. They had eventually returned, but he had proven that while there was weakness in him, his core was harder and stronger than steel.

–

Toxica woke up feeling quite well. She had been terrified about their first battle with an Elite Four, but now that they had defeated one, it felt like it wasn't such a stretch they could win another battle or three. She yawned, turned on all lights in the room, and let her flower absorb the light for a while. It was a shame the Sun was up so briefly and lowly this far north; she could really go for some nice morning sunlight. She sighed at the thought; morning Sun made for a great breakfast, bright but not too warm; she really longed for some after so much time away from the Sun.

She left her room eventually, as she really needed a normal breakfast as well, unable to live on sunlight alone this far up north. She went down to their dining room downstairs, passing the rooms of the others. She considered sneaking in and snuggling up to Octa as she passed his room, but decided against it, as she was quite hungry.

The dining room was empty; it seemed she was the first to rise. She realised as she had breakfast there was another reason she hadn't gone into Octa's room: he had been acting a bit strange lately. Though he usually didn't show it in public, he was often very affectionate and loving to her in private; yet he had lately grown more aloof and distant, and often seemed worried and lost in thought. Toxica didn't think he'd be that happy to find her with him, really...

It led to a scary thought: perhaps Octa was no longer in love with her. Maybe she hadn't turned out to be whom he really wanted, and now he was regretting their love... Even though she'd been trying to learn as much as possible of the things a lady of the house of Equinox should know, she knew she'd never be a true lady, and Octa had probably realised the same. She thought of Aurora and sighed in frustration knowing she could never be like her. Sure, she could try, but it would always be obvious to Octa she wasn't really fit for him.

There was a flapping of wings, and then Selene flew in. "Good morning, Tox."

"Morning..." she said gloomily.

The bird landed. "You're looking a bit unhappy today... Are you worried about the battle?"

"It's not that, Selene, it's just..." Toxica felt tears sting in her eyes. "I'm not sure if Octa still loves me..."

Selene perched down next to her and put a wing around her back. "There, there... It'll be alright, Tox. Life is like a box of chocolates, you know. Sometimes you eat it, and sometimes it eats you."

"Wh-what kind of chocolates are those?"

Selene kept on talking. "But when it eats you, you just have to turn the other cheek and let it eat that instead, because otherwise you may end up without a cheek to stand on; and that means you need a wheelchair to... Why are you laughing?"

"Oh, no reason," giggled Toxica. "But thanks, that really helps me feel better."

"Great!" Selene crowed happily. "I'm always glad to help a friend like you."

Toxica ate a bit. Though she was still feeling worried Selene had made her laugh at least. "Well, you're a good friend for trying to help. I really shouldn't let it get me down so much; for all I know he's just worried whether we can really defeat the Elite Four. I know I am."

"Well, at least today will be fun," Selene said cheerfully. "We're fighting a ghost-type master today, can you believe it? It'll be great."

Toxica felt as if the air in the room had disappeared and left her in an ice-cold vacuum. Horrific memories she had tried to push away flashed through her mind, reminding her of the worst fear she had ever felt. She had _been_ fear as she was lying in a grave and had heard death speak to her while five terrifying ghosts discussed how they were going to torture her and give her a fate worse than death and hundreds of creepy Litwicks sang. Even knowing it had all been some sick joke in hindsight didn't soften the terrible memory, which had returned in her nightmares several times. She would rather fight a whole horde of fire-types than ghosts.

Toxica was light-headed and nauseous with terror. She pushed her plate away; eating was the last thing she wanted now, in fact she felt like she might throw up. _Maybe I should,_ she thought. _If I act like I'm terribly ill, maybe Black won't take me along for the battle..._ _I would be useless against ghosts anyway, I'm too scared of them... And it'd be better than having my soul burned away, or eaten, or turned into a mummy... Even if those are obviously myths. Obviously._

"Oh dear..." she said. "I think I'm coming down with something... Not sure if I can fight today."

"Well, that's no problem," said Selene, "we'll just go to nurse Flatulence and let her have a look at you. I bet she can cure you."

_Oh, bugger. _"Well, um... You see, I can't... Because... Well..." Toxica sighed and realised she couldn't think of an excuse. "Look, remember Celestial Tower? If I go to fight those ghosts, I'll probably end up doing exactly what I was doing there and just freeze with fear."

Selene looked confused. "But you have to fight; if there's only five of us, then that's less than six. And these four elites are already difficult to defeat when we are both with six."

"I know..." said Toxica, softly. "But I told you, I'll just be frozen with fear... I'll be useless."

"But why? Why would you be afraid of ghosts, they're fun!"

Toxica was puzzled again by Selene's seemingly insane like of ghosts. "Well, how could you _not_ be afraid of them? They're horrible, gaseous things that can get into your mind and do gruesome things to you... Plus, they're dead people's spirits..."

"I don't think that's true," said Selene.

"How do you know?"

"Because I've seen ghosts hatch from eggs once. Gastlies."

"That's... Right, you've got a good point there." Toxica felt relieved; that made ghosts sound a lot more like a normal pokémon.

"Ghostly eggs, mind you. They're purplish-black and float, and are sort of airy and gaseous, but not quite a gas. Like really thick smoke."

"That's kind of weird." Toxica let out a little chuckle at the thought of a creepy thing like a Gastly hatching from such an egg.

"And when the Gastly hatches," continued Selene, "the shell often becomes a part of its body, if it doesn't just dissolve into thin air. Also, they make fantastic omelettes; they're just tough to keep in the pan because they tend to float away or dissipate. And when the omelette is done, you don't eat it, but inhale it." She smiled. "And then the world suddenly makes so much sense..."

"Well, that explains a thing or two," chuckled Aqua as she entered as well, smiling. "Morning, ladies, I hope there's breakfast other than Gastly omelettes left, because I'm starving."

She gracefully jumped down the stairs and onto a chair, then began giving herself breakfast. "So whawt waws awll this tawlk of Gastly omewettes?" she asked with her mouth full of bacon.

"I was just telling a bit about ghosts, because Toxica was afraid-"

"Because I was afraid I didn't know enough about them to fight them well," interrupted Toxica. Though she liked Aqua a lot, she didn't really want more people to know how scared she was of ghosts.

Fortunately Aqua seemed too busy with her breakfast to notice the cover-up. "Wow," said Selene, "you're quite hungry. Did you celebrate long with Boreas yesterday after we went to bed?"

Aqua blushed, and Toxica burst out in giggles. Selene could be very naïve sometimes. "Hehe, I guess we did," she giggled.

As they had their breakfast, Toxica's mind drifted back to the ghosts. Selene had made her feel better about them, but a single thought of the things they were said to be able to do to you made her blood freeze in her veins. The stories about devouring people's souls, turning you into a ghost, or controlling your mind were probably just made up... But they were still terrifying. And if only one of them was true... Toxica didn't dare continue the thought.

Fortunately, she didn't have to, as Octa joined them. "Mornin', Octa!" she said happily.

"Good morning," said Octa, without even looking at her. "Boreas and Lucius aren't here yet?"

"Yes, they are," said Aqua, "they're hidden under the table."

"Quite funny."

Aqua chuckled. "Well, ask a dumb question, get a dumb answer. Boreas is still lying in bed, he didn't feel like having breakfast yet. I guess Lucius is just being lazy."

As Octa started having breakfast too, he still hadn't looked at Toxica. "Good morning, Octa," she said, extra clearly. Yet he seemed to be more interested in his breakfast than in her. "Good morning." he replied.

–

Several hours later, Octa still hadn't even made eye contact with her. Her annoyance over his weird behaviour almost eclipsed her fear for the ghosts, who – hatched from eggs or not – scared the living piss out of her. The dreaded moment when she'd have to face them came closer and closer. She tried very hard not to think of the horrible stories that were told about every ghost. Her feet felt like they were made of osmium, and cold and warm shivers alternated over her body. Her head, flower and body felt far too warm, yet her hands and feet were cold and shivery. She was too scared to look up at the purple tower as they walked towards it.

They went left immediately as they entered the main League building, into a dark tunnel. Toxica could hear herself breathing awfully loud and fast, but kept walking. She toyed with the idea to use the darkness to sneak away, but knew she couldn't. She was going to have to face whatever would be waiting for her at the end of this darkness. That was, as it turned out, slightly less darkness. She could see a large staircase spiralling around huge bookcases. Spider webs were everywhere and the murky air was ominously thick and dusty. She forced the voice in her mind that said she could be breathing in a Gastly already to shut up.

Wings flapped loudly, and then something touched her flower. "Get it off me, get it off me!" she screamed, trying to slap at whatever horrible thing it was.

"It's me, Tox!" said Selene.

"Oh," said Toxica, feeling very silly, especially now that everyone was looking at her. "Er. Sorry. What'd you startle me like that for?"

"Yeah, you crazy bird," said Lucius, "what did you scare her for? She's probably scared enough for what the ghosts could do to her anyway."

"Hey, shut up!" snapped Toxica.

"Like turn her into a zombie, or-"

"Shut your trap, Lucius," said Boreas, "scaring her really isn't going to help us."

"And you shut up too, I'm not scared!"

"I'm just trying to-"

"Come on, guys," said Black, "quit fighting and get on with it."

Listening to their trainer, they stopped arguing, but Toxica was still furious that her fear was so apparent. Grumbling angrily as they walked up the stairs, she barely noticed their creepy creaking. The stairs went around the tall bookcases once, and then reached their top. There was a wooden floor illuminated by a purple lantern on top of the bookcases. At its far side a petite human woman sat at a desk, scribbling something in a book. Her hair and clothes were all purple, or perhaps that was just because of the purple light. She reminded Toxica of a cat.

"Welcome," said Shauntal of the Elite Four as she looked up. "You must be Black. A curious name, just like the last challenger..."

"Yes," said Black, "I am, and I've come to challenge you. But first I want to know why you protect N."

Shauntal looked down into the book. "'Eyes brimming with dark flame, this man rejected everything other than himself in order to bring about one singular justice...' That is something I wrote just now, inspired by our new Champion. N has a righteous, selfless conviction that is rarely seen. He believes himself to be a hero, and in many ways he is. Whether I agree with him or not, he has my fullest respect, and I want to see what he can do if we let him."

Black shrugged. "Well, at least you seem to have given it more thought than Grimsley."

"N talked to me about you, you know. He believes you too are a hero."

Black sighed, while Toxica slowly felt her anger subside. Fortunately, Shauntal didn't seem too scary. Yet she dreaded the monsters she might release from her pokéballs. "I'm not a hero, I'm just trying to stop Team Plasma. I have no interest in N's hero rubbish."

"Fascinating..." said Shauntal. "You really do fit the role well. I'm sure your battle with N will be very interesting, but that's not for now. I will battle you right now and see whether you've got what it takes. We'll fight six against six, and all the usual rules apply."

"Fine by me."

From Shauntal's pokéball appeared what looked like an ancient sarcophagus with a dark hole in it. But malicious red eyes and glistening teeth glowed up behind the hole and four ghostly hands emanated from the coffin. Toxica froze with fear; it was said that if you come to close to a Cofagrigus, it would swallow you and turn you into a mummy. Fortunately Black didn't send her to fight, but Selene.

"Hey," said Selene happily, "it's you! You were at Celestial Tower, weren't you? One of those fun ghosts!"

A voice like slime oozing out of a coffin emanated from the Cofagrigus as Selene flew over the battlefield. "_What? Oh no, it's you, the Murkrow who's away with the fairies!_"

Selene suddenly dived at Cofagrigus, her claws enveloped in dark, pointed shadows. A small, fiery light flew from Cofagrigus to her, but she dodged it nimbly and swooped at the ghost. Her claws did as good as no damage, of course, but the sharp dark energy that shot from each claw really seemed to hurt it. But as Selene flew away, she was hit by one of the ghostly arms and tossed hard through the air before she stopped her momentum.

"I don't think so," said Selene, continuing the conversation as if there was no battle going on. "My friends like each other a lot, but I don't think any of them are fairies. Also, fairy is not a nice word, you should-" Then she squawked in shock as a swarm of fiery blue lights like the Litwicks that had helped these ghosts torment Toxica flew around, all trying to intercept her. She was forced to fly as fast as she could and change direction often to evade the Will o' the Wisps.

Toxica shivered at the ghostly fires, wondering if her opponent would use them too... She thought back to that horrible day when the ghosts had terrified her; she remembered Cofagrigus, of course, but also a cruel Froslass, a kind Golurk, a Jellicent, Drifblim, and finally the scariest one of them all: Chandelure and its infernal flames. She knew she couldn't battle any of them, except perhaps Golurk. She didn't dare fight the others, out of fear for the horrible things they might do to her.

Selene had no chance to attack Cofagrigus again with about thirty Will-o-Wisps all swarming about while Cofagrigus hurled Shadow Balls at her with its ghostly arms. Toxica wanted to shout something to encourage Selene, but all she got was a frightful squeak.

Cofagrigus' glowing red eyes turned to her and then it laughed, a sound like an ill badger panting. "_If it isn't the little flower girl. Don't you think you're a little out of your league here? But by all means, go ahead and fight when it's your turn. We've got ways to use both your body and your soul..._"

Toxica knew it was trying to scare her, but that didn't change a thing. The creepy voice, the creepy eyes, the creepy... Everything. It terrified her, and she wanted to get away as fast as she could. Selene, using her enemy's distraction, dived down and Night Slashed it again. "Hey, if you want to spook someone, why not me?"

The Will-o-Wisps had followed her and pelleted Selene and Cofagrigus itself. Purple, ghostly flames erupted from its hands, but Selene was hit too, and the purple flames danced over her. She dropped to the ground with a squawk and rolled around while Cofagrigus was flailing its hands about trying to extinguish the fire. Selene had extinguished the flames soon, got to her feet, and slashed her wing in the air. A shockwave of air, sharp as a knife, slashed at the ghost as it extinguished the flames, and two more followed immediately. It hit Selene with a dark, ghostly ball, and she staggered a bit, but continued attacking until the hands retracted into the sarcophagus and Cofagrigus fell over.

Toxica wanted to cheer for Selene as Shauntal sent out another pokémon: a huge, blue, bipedal creature, roughly shaped and with gigantic fists and feet. Toxica recognised the Golurk who had saved her from the other ghosts. It quickly nodded to her and Selene in recognition, then immediately showed why Shauntal had chosen it: it aimed both arms at Selene, and massive bolts of lightning came from them. Selene squawked as she was hit, dropping quickly with singed feathers, but she flew again before she hit the ground, firing a beam of darkness at Golurk as she rapidly flew at it, her claws stretched and dark energy flowing about her.

As Selene's attack impacted Golurk, however, its gigantic fist impacted the Honchkrow like an electrified wrecking ball, sending a bright flash through the dark tower as Selene was thrown back and crashed on the floor, skidding a bit further as a heap of smoking feathers. It seemed impossible she would recover from a Thunderpunch like that, yet a pulse of darkness shot at Golurk the next moment as Selene took off once again with surprising speed, avoiding another lightning bolt.

She made a very sharp turn, tucked her wings in, and accelerated greatly as great, fiery wind formed around her: she was trying to take both of them out with a Brave Bird attack. Golurk fired off its right leg and arm like rockets, propelling it to the left quickly to dodge the attack, but it seemed it had just been a ruse: Selene flew just by it, while shooting several Dark Pulses at Golurk. Golurk simply fell over.

As Selene flew up into the air again, Toxica cheered happily for her: they were two pokémon ahead already, maybe she wouldn't even have to fight! But then, the temperature dropped instantly as an elegant, feminine creature white as snow appeared. Ice-cold wind blew through the tower. Snow fell and the air became foggy. Selene dived for the Froslass, struggling with the icy winds she conjured up. Froslass let out a bone-chilling shriek and frigid wind roared through the tower, enveloping Selene in whiteness. The icy cloud she was in kept rushing towards Froslass, but the ghost sidestepped very nimbly, and there was suddenly a blade of ice in her hand. She stuck the blade into the cloud, and it fell to the ground, dissipated and revealing a collapsed Selene. Black swiftly returned her to her pokéball.

Toxica was shivering heavily in the icy, penetrating cold. It had probably been much colder on Victory Road, but she'd been wearing thick clothes then. "Well?" said Froslass, the blade disappeared again. "Which one of you dares to fight me?"

"I do," said Boreas, stepping forth.

"Oh, an ice-type, how cute. You think you can beat me at my own game."

An Ice Beam flashed over the battlefield like a bolt of lightning, but was handily parried by a wave of Boreas' paw. "Yes, I do."

"Not bad," patronised Froslass, "but what do you do if I do this?" The wind blew forcefully and very hard, and Toxica had to turn her flower into it to prevent being blown away. The snowstorm enveloped the battlefield, spinning towards Boreas, but it didn't hit him: it blew around him, spinning very fast, and then back towards Froslass in a straight line of a ferocious, icy gale, blowing her back. She calmed the storm down quickly. "Good, good," she grinned, "this will be fun for me yet."

"Too much fun, perhaps?" said Boreas, firing off a quintuplet of Ice Beams in quick succession to Froslass. She waved her arms and the storm focused around her in an instant, making her cloaked in the white snow and haze. The Ice Beams passed through without trouble, but as the thick clouds around Froslass dissipated, she was no longer there. Toxica stared wide-eyed in shock, but then saw Froslass was trying to stab Boreas with her ice blade. "H-how?" Toxica stammered.

"But can you do _that_?" said Froslass as her jab at Boreas was parried by a blast of ice-cold air coming the other way.

Boreas pushed the blade away with one paw and put the other to Froslass, releasing a shockwave of coldness from his paw. Froslass was thrown back and pelleted with ice and liquid air. "No, but I'm willing to learn. Can you do _that_?"

He pounced Froslass, cloaked in shards of ice like a comet falling to Earth, and was thrown up, tumbling, by an even larger pulse of cold, landing hard on his bum. "Yes, I can. Better than you, I might add."

She flew through the air on the icy winds, trying to stab Boreas again, but was hit by an Ice Beam and plummeted to the ground. The wind and snow coalesced into Boreas' paw, forming a blade of ice in it, and he chopped at Froslass: just too late, as she had got up and parried with her own sword. She tried to stab Boreas, but he nimbly blocked her attack. While fencing, they were both trying to gain full control of the snowstorm that raged through the tower and had covered the entire battlefield in snow by now.

Both put forth their unused paw at the same moment, trying to unleash a pulse of cold on the other. The energy met between them, and both tried to gain the upper hand up the mighty pulse building up between them, frozen in position as they struggled. Toxica was the first to realise what would happen: "Get down!" she screeched as she dropped.

A tremendous icy explosion occurred between the two ice-types, nearly blowing Toxica away even now that she lay flat, and showering her with shards and droplets of something so cold it numbed her skin instantly. The storm blew outwards too, and hundreds of books fell from the bookcases below them. Toxica looked up, brushing the snow on her away, and saw they were still at it, though clearly hurt and even feeling cold. They were shooting Ice Beams at each other from a distance now, parrying each other's beams with pulses of cold and small flashes of dark energy. The crossfire went amazingly fast, yet they were both able to keep up with it as they resumed the snowstorm.

The storm began focusing more on Froslass, and then she was enveloped in white snow and mist again, hiding her white form. The Ice Beams stopped coming back from the cloud of snow. Boreas instantly jumped to the side, having been surprised by this trick once already, which meant the cluster of Ice Beams aiming for his head from the side where Froslass reappeared hit his flank instead. Boreas gasped with pain. "Argh, that is a nice trick..."

Froslass was determined to finish it now, barraging Boreas under attacks as they and the storm obscured him from view. Toxica winced as no Ice Beams returned from Boreas any more: it seemed someone else would have to finish Froslass.

Suddenly a comet firing off Ice Beams shot from the clouds behind Froslass; she was taken completely by surprise, hit several times, and pounced to the ground. "...So let me thank you for teaching it to me!"

She fought back with a blast of ice shards, but Boreas sent pulses of cold through her as he pinned her down, and she soon stopped struggling. Boreas was left wounded, tired, and partially frozen, but victorious.

"Woah!" gasped Toxica, "how'd you do that?!"

Boreas stuck out his tongue. "Magic."

A dark purple balloon with tiny red eyes appeared in the air, and was instantly carried around on the stormy winds. "A Drifblim?" scoffed Aqua. "I'll bet you Boreas easily beats it."

"I hope..." said Toxica, but she was really beginning to feel good about this. Selene and Boreas were really wrecking Shauntal's team, and if this kept up, they would win easily, and possibly without Toxica having to face a ghost at all. Boreas fired Ice Beams at Drifblim, who did nothing to dodge, but barely seemed harmed either. However, it emitted a cloud of little Will-o-Wisps that flew against the wind, straight for Boreas.

Aqua placed her tail on Toxica's shoulder friendlily. "C'mon, my cunning Boreas against a silly balloon that can barely control its own movements? It's no contest."

Boreas fired a sustained Ice Beam right at the X that seemed to be in place of the creature's mouth, but it seemed to have no effect either. Then he had to run to avoid the swarm of Will-o-Wisps, while a new wind blew by him; it smelled dry and very old, like the stale air in a pyramid, and Boreas looked visibly weakened by it. A Will-o-Wisp impacted his tail as he blew the Drifblim about with stormy winds of his own. The purple flames quickly crept up it, but fortunately he quickly began rolling in the snow, extinguishing most of them.

But a foul voice emanated from the Drifblim, speaking in a strange and malicious language, and the flames rapidly spread instead, despite Boreas' rolling. He burst into ghostly flame, screaming in agony as he tried desperately to extinguish it with snow and ice. Terror filled Toxica again; terror for the gruesome ghost-type that could make you combust with just a simple Hex. Aqua's tail left her shoulder as she rushed forward, enveloped in a wave of water and running to save her lover.

"I retract Boreas!" said Black just in time before Aqua too would have been disqualified. The Vaporeon, now the centre of a wave of water and snow, jumped onto Boreas and fortunately the flames proved easer to extinguish with water. "Lucius," said Black, "it's your turn, be careful!"

"Careful is my middle name," said Lucius as he stepped forward.

"Don't you need a last name to have a middle one?" said Selene.

"Shut up," Lucius said as a charred, wounded Boreas was helped off the battlefield by Aqua. "Let's see if I can hurt this thing."

He took a deep breath and exhaled a huge torrent of fire that made Toxica take several steps back, catching Drifblim right in the middle of it. Heat spread through the tower rapidly, quickly heating up the frigid air and melting much of the snow. It was unbelievable, but Drifblim only looked a little charred by the inferno; barely damaged. A thin yellow beam of electricity hit Lucius. "Ack!" he yelped. "One persistent bastard, are you? Take this!"

The darkness of the tower focussed in a single pulse that fired from Lucius to Drifblim. Once again, there was barely any result.

"Drifblims are quite impervious to damage," said Octa.

"Really, mister wise-ass?" snarled Lucius. "Hadn't noticed that yet! Argh!" He yelped as he was hit by another beam of electricity, making his fur stand on edge.

"I was merely explaining," said Octa annoyed, "you have to keep hitting it."

"Well, captain Obvious, then why don't you let me get on with it instead of distracting me?" Lucius began shooting another Dark Pulse at Drifblim as Octa grumbled angrily.

It was a surprisingly boring battle compared to the rapid exchange of attacks between Boreas and Froslass. Drifblim just bobbed around and would hit Lucius with attacks while Lucius continually fired flames and darkness at it until it finally went down. "About time," grumbled Lucius.

A floating, pink, eldritch creature appeared. Its frilled tentacles, crown, pink collar, and kissy mouth made it look absolutely ridiculous on a certain level. But that level was completely overshadowed by the incredibly unsettling and creepy way it moved, the staring emptiness of its eyes, and the way it looked like only an impersonation of a living thing. Lucius ran for the low-floating Jellicent, his mouth opened and ready to bite the floating terror. He jumped, and Jellicent swirled around with amazing speed, catching Lucius in a powerful beam of water that hit the wall so hard it sounded like rocks hitting it. Lucius was launched back, caught by the water, and crumpled onto the floor, clearly out for the count.

Toxica was shivering, as much at the Jellicent's deeply unsettling appearance as the knowledge they ate souls, and that no ship that had ever gone into Jellicent-infested waters had returned. So when Octa drew his blade and slithered forth, she was scared for him, even if he had been a jerk to her today. A storm began once again, but this time it wasn't a cold one, but it was full of leaves sharper than knives being blown around. Aqua quickly put up a veil of water to protect them from the leaves, and Jellicent did the same. However, since the attack was directed at Jellicent, part of it still got through and hit it. It didn't even bleed: only water came from its wounds.

It struck back with a wave of toxic pink sludge. Octa slithered away, but it caught up with him, and Toxica could see his pain as the stuff burned his skin. Moving quickly, he reached his eldritch opponent and stabbed at her with his Leaf Blade, creating more wounds, though the Jellicent's face remained empty. Its attempts to strike back with its tentacles were parried with Octa's blade, and it received several more stabs. Suddenly Jellicent spun rapidly, its tentacles a blur of speed, and Octa was thrown back. He got up, shot a ball of green energy at Jellicent, and then suddenly froze. Toxica wondered what was going on, but then saw Jellicent's empty eyes glow red.

"Kyogre's fins, it's using a psychic attack!" Toxica saw Octa cringe and try to fight back.

Jellicent chuckled. "Well, well, you're planning to break up with the little flower girl? I can't say I blame you."

Anger welled up in Toxica like a fire. "Hey, keep out of his head and stop lying!"

"But it's no lie," said Jellicent as its eyes stopped glowing and Octa collapsed. "Is it?"

Octa lay on the ground, panting and defeated. He looked Toxica up, and she saw it in his eyes. "I... I'm sorry..."

Toxica was furious, devastated and speechless. Before she could ask Octa for an explanation, Jellicent finished him off. She trembled. Aqua looked her in the eyes. "I'll fight it. But you'll probably have to finish the battle; you have to regain your cool."

Toxica realised she was right: Jellicent had brought the battle back to an equal standing, with each side having two pokémon left. Though rage against Octa filled her, she tried to distract herself by remembering what Shauntal's final pokémon was: she sighed when she remembered it was the scariest of all ghost-types, Chandelure. She really wished Aqua would defeat Jellicent, because Toxica would stand no chance against a Chandelure on her own.

The two water-types had been fighting for a while, flooding the field with water all the time. Jellicent was already weakened, but could use ghost attacks to great effect. Aqua resorted to trying to bite her opponent. She rushed towards it in the middle of a wave, launched herself up, and dug her teeth into the gelatinous abomination. As she bit, causing more water to flow from its wounds, Aqua was grabbed by Jellicent's tentacles. She fought against them, and bit down hard in one of them so the floating jellyfish retracted it, but there were too many. She was wrapped by the tentacles, and Toxica knew they would lose at that moment. There was no way she was going to defeat the Jellicent who had defeated their three strongest fighters, and then take on a Chandelure as well. It was better this way, she decided. She could just give up without having to face the ghosts, as she stood no chance anyway. It was much easier and less scary.

_Sod off._

She felt rage coalescing into something very hard and very tough. Something that really wanted to hurt Jellicent for hurting her friend, show that git Octa what he'd thrown away, and prove that even if she was terrified of the ghosts, she could still kick their gaseous arses. She was terrified, to be sure, and would love to give up, but if she did, she knew the power she felt inside her would never forgive her. She walked forward resolutely as Aqua fell unconsciously from her enemy's tentacles and adjusted her flower with her hands so she was ready to fight. Two balls of glowing green energy formed in her hands.

"It's the little flower girl!" sneered Jellicent arrogantly. "You'd better give up right now if you don't want me to do horrible things to your fragile little soul."

She kept walking resolutely.

"Even your boyfriend knows you're weak and mediocre, worthless compared to your companions; it's why he dumped you. And I just beat three of them. I could eat your very soul. Do you think a scared little walking flower like you is going to defeat _me_?"

"That's just about the size of it, yeah." She threw the Energy Ball in her right hand, but Jellicent suddenly showed itself to be very fast, dodging the attack and racing for Toxica. She had got as far as lifting up her left arm to throw the second Energy Ball when she was stopped by an incredibly powerful mind assailing her own like the sea bursting through a crack in the dike and ravaging the land. She was aware Jellicent was right in front of her, but as the tremendous tidal wave of thought bashed the cold hard anger that had driven her away, she couldn't bring herself to attack the ancient ocean that was in her mind. It was futile to fight it; nothing could defeat such force; such depth. Her defiance was easily washed away, and the mind tore the layers of her mind away with ease. Her fear, her love, her anger, everything was torn away...

Leaving only her core.

She threw the Energy Ball right between Jellicent's eyes. A piercing scream was everywhere, the wave in her mind boiled away instantly, and her mind was once again her own as Jellicent collapsed, looking as pathetic as a beached jellyfish. She realised now how silly she'd been to fear it.

The sound of a pokémon appearing sounded, and the tower was bathed in blue light. She turned around. A black chandelier with a ghostly face floated, five bright blue flames burning off it. The Chandelure could probably incinerate her with a single attack.

"Surrender," it said, "I'll burn your soul and leave your body a mindless shell. What's it going to be? Give up or-"

"No." Toxica aimed her flower and shot a bomb of toxic pollen right at its head. It screeched and its flames burnt an angry green as Toxica quickly threw a pair of Energy Balls at it before she jumped away from the giant flames it spewed at her. The blistering heat from the barely-missed inferno hurt her greatly, and she wished she could use a Solarbeam. Unfortunately, it was impossible to take in enough energy in the darkness. She instead used Energy Balls and poisonous attacks, so determined to win she barely noticed the pain when she got hit; it only made her angrier.

Yet all the dodging of flames drove her to the edge of the plateau soon. As another wave of flame headed her way, she jumped down onto the circulating stairs, landing on the books that had fallen out of their bookcases by the battle. She picked a couple of heavy volumes up, ignoring the searing pain in her flower, and threw them right into Chandelure's face as it floated after her; it was knocked back by the heavy impacts.

She realised then the pain in her flower had gotten much worse and was spreading rapidly; she was on fire! She bashed her flower repeatedly into the empty bookcase to extinguish it, but made sure to absorb energy from the bright light of the fire at the same time. When Chandelure showed up again, angry, she pointed her flower and lit up the entire tower with a Solarbeam. Chandelure fell on the ground and she jumped on top of it immediately, smashing a heavy book on its head repeatedly. She kept smashing and smashing, until finally the ghost disappeared from under her. She looked around ferociously, and saw Shauntal standing with a pokéball in her hand.

"Amazing," said Shauntal. "Absolutely amazing. I really wasn't expecting to lose. Maybe N is right about you..."

Toxica didn't listen to the conversation any more; she realised she had won! She had actually defeated Chandelure all by herself, and Jellicent too. Ghosts didn't seem so scary any more... She was about to put the heavy book down, but then she remembered Octa's face might be a better place to put it.

–

AUTHOR'S NOTES: And that's a second Elite Four beaten. I've had Shauntal using her rematch team here, which was also present in chapter 46 where they scared Toxica half to death.

The trick both Froslass and Boreas used to great effect is actually a use of their ability, Snow Cloak.

–

FEEDBACK: The Bulbafinatic: Q: But they might not stand a chance against Zekrom; looking back, he needs to be way harder to beat in the games; all the legendaries do, really. I once defeated Dialga with Rock Smash.

A: You're right, legendaries are much weaker than they really should be in the games. Of course, balance is a big concern in games, so you can't just have pokémon that players can capture and use be as powerful as entire parties of normal pokémon together.

Q: So, then, would Bisharp die from such a high fall?

A: Hardly, between the metal skeleton it probably has and the fact that it's only a metre or six to drop. But it's not a battle to the death; a drop like that did make it unlikely to continue fighting.

Q: And would it be possible to return him to his Pokeball from a certain height as he's falling?

A: Well, presuming gravity works the same on the pokémon planet as on Earth (and since I've treated it as an alternate Earth, it does), you fall five metres in one second, twenty in two seconds, forty-five in three seconds, eighty in four seconds, and a hundred and twenty-five metres in only five seconds. So a trainer would have to have pretty speedy reflexes to save their pokémon from a long drop, because they'll be very far down in only a few seconds.

Sonosublime: Q: great chapter, the battles were vivid and detailed, and you seem to be getting better at describing locations and pokemon.

A: Thanks, I've taken your tips to heart and tend to describe new pokémon now.

Q: i was a little disappointed that Umbreon wasn't part of Grimsley's team (since it's my favourite pokemon), but it was still a cool battle.

A: I actually considered having Grimsley use all of the generation II dark-types (With Honchkrow and Weavile instead of Murkrow and Sneasel), since they are close to my favourite dark-types, and I think very few in the later generations have managed to be as cool as them. But I decided to just use most of the in-game team instead. For one thing, I don't want to use one of those pokémon yet, for spoileriffic reasons.

TrueBolt: Q: So, this was a cool chapter. ) It'd been a while since we saw things from Octa's side, and I liked it. Actually, I was just thinking about the POV thingy, and the only POVs we haven't seen yet are Black, Lucious, and I can't remember i we had one for Seleen... I mean we've even had some from Diego's perspective. Jus sayin.

A: Thanks. I can tell you we won't see the point of view of any humans in the story; there's more than enough pokémon stories that consist of nothing but those, and I rather like seeing things from the pokémon characters. As for Selene, I don't really want us to look into her head. You'll almost certainly see Lucius' point of view yet, though.

Q: Ooooh, I don't like where Octa, and Toxica's relationship is going... I'm kinda a sapy romantic when it comes to that sort of thing, and romance, not to mention true love (haha... The Princes Bride? lol) is hard enought to find in real life. Whenever there is the posibility for ramance, be it fictional or otherwise, I hate to see it wasted. Unfortunatly, I can see how that would tie in with this story perfectly... Eh, we can alwase hope.

A: Sorry for this chapter. :(

Q: I finally got the first chapter of my fic out! *SQUEE* It's an MLP fic

A: Sorry, but unfortunately I don't like My Little Pony. But I hope you get lots of readers.

Duststar1: Q: I'm liking this story so far. Only 64 more chapters to go...

A: Thanks. Sixty-five now. :p

Q: LMFAO! And I was having a bad day! Thanks Captain Spock, seriously needed the laugh!

A: Glad you enjoyed it.


	67. Brain and Brawn

Chapter Sixty-Seven: Brain and Brawn

Boreas burst into Octa's room. "We need to talk."

The Serperior frowned. "The civilised thing to do is to knock on one's door and request entrance."

"Yes, I know. But I'm bursting into your room and telling you we're going to talk and we're going to do it right now."

Octa sighed. "I know what this is about, my dear fellow, and I ask you not to get involved in it. I already had a word with Toxica."

"So I heard. As did the entire rest of the League. That shouting match also sounded like she didn't make you see reason, so that's why I'm here instead."

"Do not presume to lecture me on reason," said Octa icily.

"Look," said Boreas, "this is really very simple. Do you love Toxica or don't you?"

"Of course I do. However, you are naïvely mistaken. My dear fellow, 'tis not as simple as that, and I'm afraid love has nothing to do with it."

Boreas sat down. "Of course it is. And why would it be any less simple than you loving her and she loving you?"

While Octa seemed calm at first glance, Boreas could clearly hear the hint of suppressed emotion – probably anger and maybe sadness - in his voice. "Because much though I wish I could give in to my love for a commoner like her, there is too much at stake for it. Our love is detrimental to me, and has already eroded much of my nobility."

Boreas rolled his eyes and gave Octa a disbelieving look. "You can't seriously be back to that rubbish again."

"Rubbish?!" said Octa angrily. "Yes, I thought 'twas rubbish as well; you actually had me convinced of it. But now there is empirical evidence to suggest 'tis no mere rubbish."

"What's that?"

"My failure on Victory Road, of course. I'm sure you remember when I simply lay down and waited for death to come in the darkest hour."

Boreas did remember it, with a pang of regret. It was not one of his proudest memories. "How _we_ lay down and waited for death, you mean. Following my example... That wasn't your fault, Octa, it was mine."

"Irrelevant. It makes my shame worse, as a matter of fact. I am of the house of Equinox; I should have led you on, never giving up hope. The fact I didn't shows how diminished I have become."

"But it seemed certain we were going to die. It had all the looks that no amount of bravery would save us. And you even tried to get me to continue..."

"And then my heart faltered and I gave up too. The apparent hopelessness of the situation was no excuse; I should never have surrendered regardless; 'tis not becoming of one of noble blood."

Boreas frowned. "So you blame Toxica for it."

"No!" Octa almost shouted. "I blame myself! She is a truly wonderful lady deserving of love; however, I never should have broken tradition and courted her. 'Tis this breaking of tradition, my family's wishes, that caused me to diminish. An Equinox is nothing if he doesn't follow the rules. It was folly to presume to be wiser than thirty-four generations of my ancestors."

"Octa," sighed Boreas, "I've told you before: what's the point of following bad rules? You think following rules and being descended from the right people makes you a good person, but I think you're wrong. What's important is the choices you make."

"Very wise," sneered Octa, "but you are mistaken. And 'tis my life in any case; why do you interfere?"

"Because you're my friend, because Toxica is my friend, because I want you both to be happy, and... Because I promised Capella."

"Capella?"

"Yes, Capella. We found out about your family's habits shortly before she died, and promised each other we would get you together with someone you loved, not someone chosen for you. Since she's no longer around to help you with her wisdom, I'll have to do it on my own."

"Ah, you promised," said Octa sarcastically. "And merely a minute ago you explained to me the choices you make are important, not doing things because you are obligated to. And as you have clearly demonstrated in the past, promises are subject to this as well."

Boreas frowned angrily. "If you want to play it like that, then alright: I choose to keep to that promise. Because I liked Capella greatly, and for some reason that escapes me right now I like you too. So I will make sure you don't throw your happiness away."

"Then do not interfere in my life," said Octa, "how can I possibly be happy if my relationship with Toxica makes me less noble?"

"Don't you realise that even _if _that were true, you are being very egotistic? You're breaking her heart because you don't want to make a bit of a sacrifice!"

Octa looked confused and surprised. "Well... I, I hadn't thought of it in that manner..."

"D'you know who you sound like with all this? Your great-aunt. But if you can't break your family's rules because it'll weaken you, why are you even talking to me? I'm just a common Glaceon, after all, with not a clue who his family is beyond his parents' names. Your ancestors would never consider me more than a lowly subordinate, our frienship is against your family's traditions too."

"An obsolete idea only practised in the past and by those determined to repeat its mistakes."

"Yeah, and so is the idea you have to love who your family tells you to! What's such an important distinction between friendship and love that makes one okay but the other not anyway?"

"You are unlikely to birth my children. I can't take their noble blood away from them. Now please," said Octa, with almost breaking voice, "leave me alone."

Boreas ignored it. "That's crap, Octa, and you've known it for ages! Your descendants won't be any lower for descending from Toxica! She's every bit as good as any member of your house."

"YES!" Boreas startled heavily as Octa shouted furiously. "YES, SHE IS! BUT I WON'T BE IF I CONTINUE LIKE THIS! My love for her has embarked me upon a descent from greatness! If I continue like this, I'll end up cowardly, weak, and mundane... And so will my descendants." Octa suddenly turned away from Boreas and added with breaking voice: "Leave me in peace now, please."

"Oh, so your genes are actually going to change because of what you do in life? That's a form of evolution I've never heard of. You're not worried about your descendants, they'll have the same genes no matter what. No, the only person you're worried about is you."

Octa was still turned away. "Leave me alone," he said in a muffled voice.

"You're worried you won't be able to admire yourself in the mirror any more, you're worried _the great Octavianus VII of the house of Equinox_ will be remembered as just some ordinary fellow. If you're remembered at all."

"Leave!"

"You're being incredibly selfish! And for no reason at all-"

"GET OUT!" Octa shouted, fury in his eyes. "LEAVE ME ALONE!"

Boreas was shocked by the sudden outburst and staggered back, but was determined to continue. "No, I won't! The only reason you're _this _furious is because you know I'm right, and it hurts!"

"Get out, or you'll be the one who is hurt!"

"I'm willing to be hurt to help you," growled Boreas.

"I do not want your help!" snapped Octa.

"Octa, you don't like to lie. So tell me, honestly, that you don't love Toxica and that you're trying to preserve your noble blood for anyone but yourself! I will leave if you do!"

For a moment it looked as if Octa was going to attack him, but then the anger seemed to leave him and he looked deflated and weak, letting his head hang. "I cannot. Please forgive me, my dear fellow..."

Boreas was surprised by the sudden moodswing, but remembering how he had felt when he had discovered Aqua had joined N, felt more sympathetic towards Octa. "_I_ can forgive you, but it's not me you should be asking for forgiveness; it's Toxica."

"I'm sorry, my dear fellow, but I fear I cannot do that... You see, in life one has to ask oneself an important question: who am I? I have known the answer for a long time; I am a descendant of the great Equinox. It defined who and what I am, my behaviour, my thinking. I cannot give that up, for it is who I am."

Boreas put a friendly paw on Octa's neck. "Nonsense," he smiled, "that's not really who you are. You're my best friend. You're Toxica's lover. You're, well, Octa. The Snivy who took care of a little Eevee when he had no-one else in the world to turn to. Who's had my back ever since and saved my life many times. You've fought to help others from Team Plasma. You've always been there for me; that's who you really are, not the distant descendant of a long-dead hero."

"Thank you, my dear fellow... But the reason I am who I am is my blood; it makes me who I am; therefore I can't relinquish it."

"Landorus, Octa," snapped Boreas, "you descend from Equinox by _thirty-five_ generations. How much of his genes do you think you actually have? Tell me, how much is one divided by two to the thirty-fifth power?"

"Not much," mumbled Octa.

"That's right, it's as good as zero. I'll bet you _I _contain about as much of his genes as you."

"You're a different species," said Octa.

"Oh yeah," said Boreas. "So I am. Still, don't you see that 'blood' stuff you keep talking about is poetic rubbish? It's just simple logic."

Octa was at a loss for words. "But... Please, my dear fellow, you are not helping. You're only lowering my morale with this."

"No. I've never argued against your belief your ancestry makes you a better person, but now it's hurting you and Toxica, so I'm forced to try to end it. But let me tell you: you're a good Serperior. Not because of who you descend from, but because you choose to be. You choose to be utterly loyal to your friends, you choose to fight to try to make the world a better place, you choose not to give in to terror."

"Tell me," said Octa snidely, "for how long have you embraced this philosophy of choice you're spouting?"

Boreas blushed. "Well... To tell you the truth I made it up just now. But it sounds good."

"Yet you will likely have forgotten about it in a week or so."

"No, I won't."

"You will; mark my words. However, I should know better by now than to question your chaotic nature. I shall take your words under consideration, for you may have made a good argument. However, right now I do think I should retire to bed, for it is late."

"Fine," said Boreas. "But I really want you to think about it."

"I shall," said Octa. "Goodnight, my dear fellow."

"Goodnight." Boreas slowly walked out of the room, concerned but happy he had made Octa think twice about breaking up. He sighed deeply as he closed the door behind him, suddenly overcome with exhaustion. He slouched back to his room, worried about Octa. He yawned loudly as he entered his own room and went straight for the bed. As he crawled under the big, warm blanket, a pretty blue face suddenly popped up next to him.

Boreas' worries seemed to melt away in front of Aqua's enchanting smile, though not his tiredness. "How did it go?" she asked.

He pet her face a bit, enjoying the feel of her soft fur. "It wasn't easy, but I think I got through to him. He's going to think about it..."

Aqua chuckled, a sound that made Boreas feel happy just like that. "You must've been very persuasive; I didn't think you could do anything after that lengthy shouting match they had earlier."

"Well..." said Boreas, having trouble keeping his eyes open. "It took a lot of convincing..."

"And it tired you out. Well, go on, my love, sleep and rest here in my arms."

Boreas snuggled up to her closely, relishing in the contact with her, and kissed her goodnight. "Goodnight... My lovely Aqua..."

As he drifted off to sleep, he felt Aqua softly petting him. On the border of sleep, he could only think of how much he loved her, and then felt regret remembering he still hadn't told her...

–

As they walked into the main League building, Boreas' mind was elsewhere. He had dreamt about the day they had teamed up with N that night. It had refreshed his guilt over his plans to kill Diego, but especially his guilt for not having told Aqua yet. As he woke up with her sleeping peacefully in his arms, he felt like he didn't deserve her love. But what if she felt the same? It would be terrible if she thought he didn't deserve her love too and broke up with him. Yet he loved her too much to keep deceiving her; he was going to tell her today. He just needed to find a good moment for it. It certainly wasn't when she woke up, nor during the incredibly silent and awkward breakfast that followed and involved Toxica shooting dagger-like glances at Octa.

They had reached Marshal's tower while he pondered this. The room inside was quite ugly and metallic, with a metal platform on rails that took them up; it felt a bit similar to a factory floor. There was a simple fighting ring at the top, surrounded by ropes and then tall fences. On the other side of the ring stood a huge, muscular man. He stood so still and was so huge he could easily be mistaken for a statue.

Black said: "My name is-"

A loud, deep voice like thunder interrupted him. "Do you wish to challenge me?"

Marshal's voice took Boreas back more than a year, to a fierce and stormy day in Nimbasa when he had heard that same voice say the exact same thing. "Well, well," he chuckled, "I was wondering if we'd see him again here..."

"Well, yes," said Black a little nonplussed. "I'm here to challenge you. Again. Like in Nacrene City, because I'm pretty sure that was you. But this time, I-"

Marshal roared a guttural battle cry and threw a pokéball, releasing a green creature with a long tail and a mushroom-like head. "Hold on!" interrupted Black. "Tell me what you were doing in Nacrene, and why you won't let me fight N!"

"Fight, don't talk!" roared Marshal.

"Fine. Selene, you're up first!"

Selene jumped into the air, and Boreas' hope soared with her. There was no way a flying type like her was going to lose to a grass and fighting type like Breloom. It would be good to start the battle off with an easy victory. Selene floated over the battlefield in preparation for an attack, leaving the fighting type chanceless to even hit her at all.

Or so Boreas thought. Because Breloom launched itself into the air, twisted around, and caught Selene hard with the heavy end of its tail, sending her tumbling into the roof with great force. Boreas cursed under his breath as she whirled down slowly, like a leaf in autumn. But just before she would hit the ground, Selene spread her wings and swooped rapidly at Breloom. The effect of her attack was incredible: Breloom was thrown across the battlefield and caught by the ring ropes. It hopped to its feet and tried to hit Selene with a Jump Kick, but the crow dodged it. Selene flew at it again, her talons ready, and scratched it. Breloom fell down and didn't get up again.

Wordlessly, Marshall withdrew Breloom and sent out Conkeldurr. Boreas was surprised with its small size; he remembered it being huge, but it wasn't much taller than he'd be if he got up on two legs. But the comically red-nosed creature was very strong regardless of size. It had taken out their entire team almost single-handedly last time, after all.

Selene once again swooped down at her enemy. But as she came close rapidly, Conkeldurr swung one of its concrete pillars like a baseball bat. Boreas groaned as Selene was swatted out of the air like a fly.

Toxica stepped in, an Energy Ball in each hand. Conkeldurr growled in pain as it was hit by them, and angrily tried to smash Toxica with one of its pillars. Toxica nimbly dodged the great piece of stone coming down and slapped Conkeldurr with a burst of green energy. She emitted a thick cloud of pollen from her flower, but then Conkeldurr caught her with a punch that sent her flying into the ropes. Bruised and hurt, she got back up and dived immediately to dodge her enemy's body slam. She jumped on its back, and roots grew rapidly from her feet. Conkeldurr jumped up, but Toxica hung from its back by the roots. Judging by Conkeldurr's face and pained growls, it didn't exactly feel pleasant.

Conkeldurr maniacally tried to pluck Toxica from its back, but its huge, muscular arms weren't agile enough to reach its back. It waddled idiotically while trying to pick her off as it got visibly weaker. Marshall shouted a command, and Conkeldurr dropped on its back immediately, crushing Toxica under it.

Boreas stepped forward; it was his turn. "Long time no see," he said, "remember me?" He cooled the air in the tower as he talked, hoping he could keep the burly creature distracted with talk while he made the battlefield more to his advantage. "I beat you, and this time I- Articuno's oesophagus!"

Sprinting away while at the same time hitting it with a powerful wind were the only things that saved him from being crushed by the heavy stone pillar Conkeldurr threw at him. Yet he felt a vicious pain as he was pelleted by shrapnel from its impact. He noticed a massive fist coming at him, and so he immediately dived under the legs of his opponent so the punch harmlessly hit his tail instead.

Boreas dug his teeth into Conkeldurr's leg and ran for it, summoning a snowstorm as he did. A mighty impact to his flank that threw him off his feet painfully told him he wasn't fast enough. Spun around, he now faced the furious, roaring Conkeldurr, which lifted up its heavy fists, ready to crush Boreas. Boreas Ice Beamed its belly, making it flinch in pain and giving him a chance to dodge the punch. He ran for the other side of the ring, gathering a storm, as he realised he had no chance unless he kept his distance.

He heard his opponent run after him, however, so he jumped into the ropes instead of stopping and was bounced back by them, past his confused opponent. He lashed out and enveloped his opponent in cold from behind, cloaking it in mist. Conkeldurr charged him furiously, so he froze over the ground in front of its feet, making it slip and fall. Cloaking himself in a fierce blizzard, he pounced his fallen enemy, but was knocked away by a huge fist.

Groaning in pain, he tried to get up when he landed hard, but his battered legs didn't cooperate. Conkeldurr ran for him like a stampeding rhino by the time he got up. Thinking quickly, he focussed the snowstorm around himself, making sure he was as good as invisible to Conkeldurr, then simply sidestepped. Conkeldurr punched blindly into the icy haze, and Boreas simply sneaked out of the side, repressing the urge to laugh at the fighting-type punching into the cloud. He walked to its other side and aimed a strong Ice Beam right at its neck. He fired it, and jumped onto its back, holding on as he kept Ice Beaming. It responded furiously and violently, but quickly calmed down and fell over.

Boreas heard Aqua cheer for his victory, and winked at her quickly before facing his next opponent: a thin, elegant white creature with long, oddly-shaped arms. Remembering what had happened last time he fought the Mienshao, he instantly put forth his paws to use a pulse of cold: a good choice, as the ermine had run for him so fast he couldn't even see it, but was intercepted and knocked down by the pulse just in time. He pounced it, slashing at it with his claws and ice cold wind.

He put his paws on his opponent's shoulders and channelled extreme cold through them, seeking to disable Mienshao's punches. Unfortunately it punched him off and began barraging him with rapid punches. Yet their speed and power was lower than before, so his tactic seemed to have worked. Unfortunately the rapid punches still felt like a rain of heavy stones battering down on his body. He slashed at Mienshao with his claws and pulses of cold to knock it away, then instantly followed up with an Ice Beam to its face.

He cloaked himself in the snowstorm to try and escape the attacks, but unfortunately Mienshao was a lot faster and smarter than Conkeldurr. It got several punches to Boreas' head, which made his snout bleed and his mind go foggy. But he kept fighting back and caught it with several Ice Beams, making it go down first.

Battered, wounded, and concussed he wasn't in a good form to defeat the Sawk that appeared. The blue, suited creature deftly dodged his Ice Beams and closed in. When its powerful fist connected with Boreas' chin and his consciousness drifted away, he wasn't really surprised.

–

Boreas woke up in a soft, warm bed in his room. He decided to skip the obvious "Where am I?" and "What happened?" questions for now, and asked: "Did we win?"

"Well, well," chuckled Aqua, "Sleeping Beauty finally woke up! Yes, we won, albeit only barely. No thanks to me, though, Sawk punched me out pretty quickly after it got you."

"Oh, that's a shame," said Boreas, though he was mainly happy they had defeated another Elite Four. "But I'm sure you'll do well tomorrow. I know you're very capable of kicking ass."

With a graceful jump, Aqua landed on the bed and on Boreas at a right angle, quickly rolling over so she faced him in a flirty, sexy pose. "Yes, you found that out first-hand, didn't you?"

Boreas blushed for several reasons. "Yeah, I guess I did. It's not really an experience I'd care to repeat. That fight was probably the only day I haven't enjoyed your company."

"I wouldn't want to repeat it either," said Aqua, petting his face. "By the way, you're still very cute when you blush."

"Thanks," chuckled Boreas, "but I'm afraid I don't have time for fun now. I have to go pay Gaius a visit."

"Octa's brother?"

"The very same. I figure it can't be a coincidence that Octa's being an idiot right after he shows up, so I'm going to make him stop his meddling."

"What if he doesn't listen to you?"

"Well, in that case he'll find out you're not the only one in this bed capable of kicking ass."

–

As Boreas entered Gaius' room, he briefly wondered how many pokémon had rooms of their own in the League. But this thought was quickly pushed away by more urgent matters.

"I do not have much time to waste," said Gaius in a voice that sounded oddly like Octa's, "and only agreed to receive you at my brother's request. So please do not tarry and make your point."

Gaius looked oddly like Octa, yet was also different. He had a far more impressive air of grandeur about him, although it was slightly mitigated because Boreas had only ever seen him look as if there was a rotten fish glued beneath his nose. Boreas faked a smile, remembering Octa had told him to be diplomatic to Gaius when Boreas had asked him to speak to his brother. "Good evening to you too. I'm not here to make a point, just to have a little chat with you about Octa."

"I figured as much. However, I do not have any intention to discuss my brother with the likes of you."

Boreas forced his smile to broaden. "Come now, who better to discuss him with than his best friend?"

Gaius snorted haughtily. "Any member of our house. 'Best friend' is an empty boast, so do not employ it, for you know Octa far less well than I do."

Boreas gritted his teeth, but kept smiling. "If that's true, then surely you know even better than me that this ridiculous idea he has is causing him to be unhappy, and you'll help me convince him to apologise to Toxica?"

Gaius guffawed. "Now I see why Octa requested me to speak to you: he wished for me to have a good laugh. So tell me," he said, suddenly serious, "why should I oppose Octa's wise choice?"

"I already told you: being with Toxica makes him happy; isn't that reason enough?"

Gaius smiled wryly. "What has happiness got to do with it?"

"What has happiness got to do with it?! Listen to me, you-" Boreas remembered he was trying to be diplomatic, "-brother of Octa, don't you see love has everything to do with happiness?"

"I see," said Gaius, "you are speaking of your own experiences, aren't you?"

"Well, yes. I'm in love with this girl, and I relish every moment of being with her. She makes me feel completely happy whenever I'm with her, or even whenever I think of her. When she smiles or laughs, the world feels like a better place. How can you claim to love Octa and yet try to take that away from him?"

"Do you have any progeny, sir?" asked Gaius, surprising Boreas.

"What?"

"Children," Gaius patronised. "Offspring. Cubs. Spawn. Larvae. Whatever word you wish to apply to them."

"I know what it means!" snapped Boreas. "You just surprised me, that's all. No, I don't have any."

"Do you and your partner intend to have any?"

Boreas stammered unsurely. He couldn't remember ever having talked about it with Aqua. He didn't really think he wanted them himself, considering the enormous amount of time and trouble it would be to raise a child, not to mention how easy it would be to screw up and have some poor Eevee grow up with a bad youth. Yet there was also something appealing about the idea. "I... I... Don't think we do. I suppose we don't. I think. Probably."

Now it was Gaius' turn to be surprised. "You don't... _Know_?! How can you not have an inkling about such a major choice? Surely if you have any plan for your life whatsoever this choice must be one of the most important ones?"

"I guess I'm not really someone who tends to make long-term plans. What has it got to do with anything, anyway?"

Gaius sighed. "Well, Octa _does_ intend to have progeny. You probably don't understand this, but both Octa and I already love these hypothetical nephews and nieces of mine; and this is unconditional. Therefore, we want that which is best for _them_. Answer me this: what is better for them? To be born with the same gift of nobility we have, or to have it brutally robbed from them and have them be born Oddishes?"

Boreas gritted his teeth angrily. "The best for them would be to have a father and a mother who adore each other and them, not a pair who were forced to be together by a family who treats them like breeding stock!"

Gaius' face hardened. "How dare you, sir?!"

Anger exploded in Boreas like a seething volcano. "No, how dare _you_! You think you're better than the rest of us just because of who your ancestors are?! Because of something completely trivial like that, which you didn't even have anything to do with yourself?! At least Octa really has the greatness he claims, but because of who _he_ is, not who his ancestors are! You, on the other hand, are nothing but a petty, control-happy tyrant who has stuck his head so far up his own arse he's well on his way to becoming a Klein bottle!"

"This discussion is over. Get out!" snarled Gaius.

"Fine! I can see you're blinded with arrogance and entitlement; there's no reasoning with you." He stomped out of the room, then looked back. "One last piece of advice: don't ever get in the way of my friends' happiness again if you ever want to feel warm again."

Gaius slammed the door shut, nearly catching Boreas' tail in it. He began to walk back furiously, making it hail from the clouds above in anger. At least he'd remained diplomatic for a while.

–

AUTHOR'S NOTES: I know, I know, the battle was completely rushed and I actually skipped over half of it. Well, it's been a very busy time for me, as I've both moved out of my parents' house and into my own place, and began my research internship; essentially my first proper scientific research. As you can imagine, both of these things have kept me very busy, and add to that the difficulty of writing Elite Four battles and portraying the rather boring fighting-type (though at least it's not as awkward to write as the water-type. Though I like water-types, it is by far the most awkward type to portray), and it's a miracle I took only a bit over a month on this one. I promise I won't skip past most of the battle with Caitlin like this.

FEEDBACK: lusterkingdragon: Q: I really enjoy this story and i was wondering, if i said in my fanfic that black and his team were your idea could i use them in my fanfic?

A: Sorry, but you can't. But it's nice to hear you would want that.

Sonosublime: Q: Great chapter. The humour was great ("Life is like a box of chocolates, you know. Sometimes you eat it, and sometimes it eats you"), as was the action (especially Boreas vs Froslass).

A: Thanks. Those were also the two parts I most enjoyed writing.

Q: Poor Toxica, having to find out about octa that way. but it's great that she turned into a badass ghost-killing machine. and it's also nice that you tied it back to the celestial tower chapter.

A: The Celestial Tower chapter was originally conceived as a way to feature Shauntal before the Pokémon League; I don't like how in the games, the Elite Four are basically just random bosses you have to fight who get barely a mention before or afterwards.

Q: Was this the big battle toxica was told she would play an important part in?

A: Possibly.

Q: the major problem i have with this story is the missed opportunity with human interactions. Black, Skyla, Cheren, etc are all great characters on their own, and it would have been great to see the war from their POV as well. but i respect that you wanted to make this a pokemon-focused story.

A: I agree that the lack of interaction with humans is one of the weak points of this story. It's the main reason why I decided at some point that pokémon masters were able to understand pokémon, as Diego and N were the only villains up to that point who were ever able to interact with Boreas at all.

UNKNOWN: Q: Did I just see a Forrest Gump reference there? If so, then I salute you, good sir. I havent seen any of those in a while.

A: Yeah, the beginning of Selene's Shaggy Frog Story was indeed a Forrest Gump reference. She just seems to have given it a slightly different meaning.

Q: Octa, Octa, Octa. I thought he was supposed to be the counselor when it comes to feelings.

A: Octa, a counselor when it comes to feelings? That's Capella; Octa is not very good with feelings, preferring cold logic to them. He's got good advice on many things, but feelings aren't usually one of them.

Q: Oh yeah, Octa did a great job, taking care of multiple foes consecutively. I just wish that Serperior could sweep an enemy team, with type disadvantages, just by using leaf blade. My Serperior was really underpowered.

A: It _is_ a bit of a shame you couldn't do something like that in the pokémon games, yeah, at least not without massively overlevelling the Serperior. But I guess that's just how the combat system works.

Q: And I'm still kinda suspicious as to whether that Hydreigon was ghetsis's. if not wild, who else would own one?

A: Well, I'm not going to confirm or deny anything here. What I will do, however, is remind you we actually get to see Ghetsis' team in chapter 50. Make of it what you will.

Q: Just can't wait for BW2 coming out tomorrow!

A: I haven't had time yet to pick a copy of it up myself. I'll be sure to do so one of these days, though; I'm looking forward to the game.

Q: Darn, perhaps I'm getting too old to be so excited for this...

A: You're never too old for fun.

Blazikenfreek: Q: Amazing story, simply stunning.

A: Thank you.

Q: I rather dislike the fact that Black sent out Aqua before Toxica but I realize it would have been less dramatic otherwise.

A: Yeah, that and the fact he could probably see Toxica's terror for himself are the main reasons Aqua was switched in first.

Q: I presume you have already planneded out the remainder of your story, if not on paper than in your head.

A: I've had the rough course of the story (per part, at least; not per chapter) planned out since very early, probably somewhere around chapter five. But of course the plan developed very much during writing, and important things still to come have changed enormously as recently as when I was writing part six. But by now, I have a pretty good idea of what's going to happen in the few remaining chapters, yeah.

ChristianDragon: Q: I like Boreas! He's a funny guy. He's willing to jump off a boat just to talk to a pretty female at the cost of being separated from his trainer.

A: I'm glad you like him; you'll be happy to learn that is fairly typical behaviour for him.

Q: Aqua seems to know a lot about humans keeping pokemon as their captives. Who's to say she isn't a member of Team Plasma and is being used as a decoy to separate Boreas from Black?

A: Well, by the time you'll have reached this chapter, you'll already know you were not extremely far from the truth here. Good job.


	68. Forgive and Forget

Chapter Sixty-Seven: Forgive and Forget

When Boreas finally got back from Gaius, he was clearly angry and tired, so Aqua gently guided him to bed and got into it as well. The great soft warmness of the bed was delightful as always. Even though she wasn't too fond of humans, she could easily get used to sleeping in one of these delightful things. But she couldn't wallow in the snuggliness now: Boreas obviously wanted to talk to her, but wasn't sure how to start. So she asked: "How did it go? Did that git listen to you?"

"No," said Boreas, "it really went about as well as expected. I tried to be diplomatic, he was an elitist jerk, I lost my temper and ended up shouting at him. But he did say something... Well, something thought-provoking."

"Oh?"

"He asked... Well, it's a bit odd, but he asked whether we wanted cubs."

Aqua did not expect that. "Cubs?"

"Children, offspring, progeny, sp-"

"Oh, thanks," quipped Aqua, "I had no idea what that word meant."

"Sorry." Boreas smiled cutely and apologetically.

Aqua thought about it. She wondered what Boreas' own thoughts were. "Well..." she said unsurely. "I guess I've never really given it much thought. But we _are _both adults, and I do love you a great deal, so it's something to consider. I mean, if I wanted cubs, I would want them with you."

"Well, _do_ you want them?" asked Boreas.

"...Do you?"

"I'm... Really not sure. It would be neat to have little Eevees to raise together, I guess."

Aqua grinned. "Neat?"

"Sorry," Boreas chuckled. "Splendid, I mean. Splendid to have little cubs that we could raise together with love. But..." he trailed off.

Aqua nodded. "I know. It's a big responsibility, taking care of cubs. And it would take an awful lot of time. It'd practically be a matter of changing our entire lives."

"And," added Boreas, "while we're still fighting Team Plasma, it wouldn't really be right to have cubs. Either or both of us could be gone next week, after all."

Aqua nodded solemnly. "You're right. We'd have to wait at least until this is over..." As Aqua considered both possibilities, she began to realise she liked a future with only Boreas over one with him and a family. Yet she also knew she could reconsider if Boreas did want it. Cautiously, she asked: "So what do you think?"

"Well..." said Boreas after long deliberation. "It'd be an enormous burden, and an even bigger responsibility. We'd be responsible for making another being's life turn out well. I think right now I would prefer not to have cubs. But I'm not sure, and if you-"

"I agree," said Aqua. "I mean, look at it from the perspective of those cubs: you're impatient, impulsive, a little short-tempered, and occasionally reckless. So am I. Would _you_ want to have me as your mother and you as your father?"

Boreas laughed. "I guess you're right, we'd probably make for poor parents."

Aqua briefly imagined herself playing with their cubs and wondered if they were dismissing parenthood too fast... But then remembered the flip-side of it, and how much trouble she had been to her parents. She giggled a bit thinking of how much of a pain she had probably been to them as an Eevee.

That was odd: she could think of her family without feeling down. For a very long time, the thought of her family had been deeply saddening, as she longed back to them, but knew she could never return to them. They thought she was dead, and they might as well be dead to her. But no longer: she didn't feel sad thinking of them, and she knew why. She had found a new true home, where she was loved and never alone: at Boreas' side.

She hugged Boreas tightly and began kissing him, full of happiness that he was hers. Yet Boreas still seems concerned and preoccupied. "What's wrong?" asked Aqua.

Boreas sighed. "Well, there's something I've wanted to tell you about for a while, but I never could bring myself to do it. I might as well tell you now, but it's not really nice to admit... But you have the right to know who I am."

"This is where you drop your illusion and reveal yourself as Diego?" joked Aqua.

Boreas frowned. "I'm serious, Aqua!"

"Sorry. Continue."

"Well, it's actually got to do with Diego. You know we allied temporarily on Victory Road with N before you found us?"

Aqua nodded.

"Well, what I didn't tell you is..." he took a deep breath. "During the alliance, I was planning to kill Diego. I wanted to attack him from behind during the battle and murder him by surprise. And then he... He saved my life. I would be dead if it wasn't for him, who I was planning to kill. In some way... I'm as bad as he is."

Aqua considered this for a while. On the one hand, she thought he was overreacting a lot, yet for some reason something about it really bothered her. "I don't think you're worse than Diego," she reassured him, still trying to work out what was nagging at her mind so badly. "In fact, I think it's a shame you didn't actually kill him, because he deserves to die after all he's done to both of us."

Boreas was clearly surprised. "Really?"

"Really. The single good deed of saving you doesn't make up for all he's done before. Yet... This may not be important to me, but it clearly is to you." Aqua began to realise what had bothered her, and it made her feel pretty annoyed, in fact.

"Well, yes," said Boreas. "It was. I felt really bad about it for a while, but-"

"Yet you neglected to tell _me_," snapped Aqua. "You've had two whole months with me since then in which you could tell me."

"I... It was hard for me to admit. And I was terrified you'd leave me over it."

"In the name of Kyogre's dorsal fin, Boreas, I can understand you not telling me right away, but _two months_? You thought this was so important, but you didn't bother telling me. Well, I'm only the girl you've just been talking about having children with! How many times in those two months have you told me you loved me, or kissed me, or made love to me? All the while keeping this supposedly enormous secret from me."

Boreas cast his eyes down. "Sorry. I know I should've told you... But as you said, it's not that important; it's just Diego."

"That's not the point! It doesn't matter that I don't find it that important now, what matters is that you did! You love me, and yet you keep major secrets from me."

"Not secrets, just _a _secret," interjected Boreas. "And now no more; I've told it to you."

Aqua sighed angrily. "Until the next one! If we're going to make this relationship work out between us, I have to know what you're thinking."

"You want to know what I'm _thinking_ now? Well, right now, I'm thinking you're being overly controlling and a little invasive!"

"I don't mean your every thought, but when something major is in your mind, you need to share it with me, just like I would share it with you! Because if you want us to share our lives with each other, you'll have to com-you-nee-cate!"

"You don't have to talk to me like that!"

"Yes, I do, because it just doesn't get through your skull otherwise!" she realised she was shouting at him and took a deep breath. "Maybe I should sleep in my own room tonight!"

"Yeah, maybe you should," snarled Boreas.

"Fine!" snapped Aqua as she hurried out of the room, slammed the door behind her, and stamped down the hall to her own room. Only when she was there did she realise she'd just gone from cuddling and kissing Boreas and talking with him about having children to fighting with him in just a few minutes time.

"And there's yet another reason not to have cubs together..." she groaned.

–

After an unhappy, lonely night, Aqua had to sit through an awkward breakfast. She wasn't really mad at Boreas any more, but she didn't feel like she had been wrong and should apologise either. He really should learn to confide in her more. Besides, she certainly wasn't going to talk things out with him while the rest was there.

So breakfast was uncomfortable. Toxica was still trying to murder Octa with her eyes, Boreas and Aqua avoided eye contact with each other, and Lucius and – to lesser extent – Octa gave her the occasional suspicious look, as always. They were still clearly suspicious of her, despite Boreas' assurance she could be trusted. Lucius was quite open and obvious with it, while Octa tried to pretend he had no suspicions, but she knew they both considered her likely to be a traitor. That thought had probably only increased after she had done poorly in the last two battles.

And in a sense, she really wasn't on their side. While the sight of humans didn't spoil her mood any more as it used to, she still didn't like them. She'd much rather see a world where pokémon were free from humans than one where they were still under the command of trainers. That said, with Team Plasma in power both humans and pokémon were no more than slaves, and that was far worse. Even so, she knew she didn't have the conviction the others had. Fighting for the least of two evils was far harder than fighting for what you thought was right. And, she reflected with a little bitterness, she was an expert at running away when things went bad by now. She would fight today, of course, but if they won and they had to enter Team Plasma's castle tomorrow, it remained to be seen what she'd do when Team Plasma pulled an inevitable nasty trick.

As she finished her breakfast, her stomach feeling delightfully full, Aqua reflected there was at least one other good thing about humans: they generally had lots of food.

–

As they walked to the great building with the five towers that was now surrounded by the ominous castle of Team Plasma, a snide voice suddenly said: "Hold it, Black!"

Black stopped in surprise and turned around, and Aqua instantly saw his face cheer up. "Cheren!" he greeted the other human happily. "Great to see you! It's been..."

Cheren smiled and shook Black's hand. "Half a year, yeah."

"How are you? Why couldn't I reach you and Bianca? Is Bianca okay?"

"I'm fine," answered Cheren, "it's a long story, and Bianca-"

"Yoohoo! Blaahaack!" a cheerful voice cried out as a human female came running at Black.

Cheren winced. "She's here too."

The human female flew into Black's arms while unleashing a downpour of words. "Black, it's so great to see you, we've missed you so much, Cheren was sure you were dead when you took months to get out of Victory Road but I knew better, remember Elesa? She's so cool, and we've been helping her and the other Gym Leaders with the resistance against Team Plasma!"

"Honestly," sighed Cheren, "can't you go anywhere without embarrassing yourself and others?"

"You're just jealous because I hugged Black." Bianca stuck out her tongue.

"Rubbish."

"Bianca, Cheren," said Black, "it's wonderful to see you both, but I've got to battle the leader of the Elite Four right now. I want to hear everything you've been up to afterwards."

"Of course," said Cheren. "We just arrived here to watch your final battles, and just wanted to say hi."

"Good luck!" said Bianca.

As they walked into the great League building, Aqua giggled remembering Boreas' descriptions of those two; they had been spot-on.

Taking the final dark corridor they hadn't entered yet from the hub of the building, they emerged into a gorgeous chamber inside the purple tower. A beautifully calm surface of water that just begged to be swum in stretched out over the chamber's floor beyond the platform they were on, only betraying itself by its reflection of the gorgeous columns that rose from it. There was a semi-transparent staircase which spiralled around the columns until it went to the top. The black walls of the room were covered in what looked like stars, and as they walked up the stairs the ethereal quality of the place was breathtaking.

They reached a white platform, the other half of which was hidden by huge, fancy curtains. The curtains parted slowly to reveal an amazingly comfy-looking bed with a human female in a big pink hat in it. She got out of bed, revealing her blond hair to be so long it would drag over the floor if it didn't somehow float as if she was underwater.

"Who are you?" she asked, her voice oddly echoing in the chamber. "How dare you disturb my sleep?"

Black was clearly even more surprised by this all than Aqua, stammering: "Um. I'm Black, and I think I may have taken a wrong turn somewhere..."

"No, you haven't," said the human, yawning. "I'm Caitlin, leader of the Elite Four, and I guess you're here to challenge me."

"Weird..." mumbled Selene. "I thought she'd be someone we'd met before..."

"Yeah..." said Black, looking at her oddly. "Why were you sleeping here?"

"Because I was tired," Caitlin said ditzily.

"Okay... Why do you want to battle me instead of letting me fight N?"

"Well, I guess because it's my duty as leader of the Elite Four..."

Those words struck Aqua: "Leader of the Elite Four". Yet she seemed to be a somewhat stupid, airheaded girl with probably little skill. It had to be a trick, Aqua thought: behind that innocently smiling face a fierce intellect lurked that was trying to get them to underestimate her. "Don't fall for it," she warned Toxica, "it's just a trick. Like Selene, she's way smarter than she pretends to be."

"You think so?" asked Toxica.

"I am?" asked Selene.

"Yeah; she wouldn't be the leader of the Elite Four otherwise."

Black and Caitlin had finished talking as Caitlin sent out a Musharna and Black sent Lucius to battle. The pink tapir floated gently, seeming fast asleep as Lucius arrogantly strutted onto the battlefield. "This will be easy as pie, it's not even awake."

"Don't underestimate it!" warned Aqua. "Caitlin is smarter than she looks."

"I don't remember asking you one damn thing!" snapped Lucius.

"Oh, I'm so sorry for trying to help you!" Aqua shouted back.

"I don't need your- Argh!" A shower of glowing, white rocks that disappeared after they hit Lucius magically fell from above. They clearly had the same effect as real rocks. Battered, Lucius escaped from the rain and spit fire at Musharna. It didn't even move in the inferno, but the rain of rocks followed Lucius, forcing him to stop it and run for his life. "You distracted me!" he shouted. "I knew you were a traitor!"

Aqua was really wishing he'd get caught in the rain of stones now. "I'm-"

"Shut your trap, Lucius," snapped Boreas, "Aqua is not a traitor!"

"I can fight my own battles, Boreas," said Aqua coldly. "So mind your own business."

Boreas simply gave her an angry look. Aqua sighed; she wished she hadn't snapped at him like that for trying to help her, but he was just very annoying to her right now, the annoyance made worse by Lucius.

"Are you and Boreas fighting?" asked Toxica.

"Mind your o-" Aqua stopped and took a deep breath, cursing herself mentally for being so easily annoyed today. "Sorry. Yeah, we had an argument last night, and it's left me grumpy... More so with Lucius being an idiot."

Fortunately, Toxica didn't seem offended. "It's alright, really. After all," she suddenly started talking louder, "I know how it feels when your boyfriend turns out to be an idiot one day!"

Aqua suppressed a giggle over the Vileplume's lash at Octa. "Well, I guess I always knew Boreas was a bit of an idiot. But it's just a couple's argument, you know. We'll make up sooner or later."

Toxica smiled humourlessly. "Lucky you. I'm done with Octa forever."

"You don't know that," said Aqua gently. "Boreas has talked to Octa and to his windbag of a brother, and I think he might at least have gotten through to Octa."

"If he has, that's bad luck for Octa. Because he's shown his true nature to me now, and I don't want anything to do with him any more."

Aqua tried to think of a counter-argument, but found it hard to, thinking of Octa: aloof, arrogant, cold, and elitist. "Well, I can hardly blame you for that. I mean, I think you should give him a second chance, but if you don't, I suppose you've still got your friends. It's not like you'll be all alone. We'll still be here for you."

Toxica smiled. "Thanks. I know you- oh dear, well, he deserved that."

Aqua turned her attention back to the battle, seeing Lucius was knocked out and badly bruised by now. "Yeah, I guess it does. We're one down, though."

It was Boreas' turn, and Aqua couldn't suppress a smile as he showed his wits by entering the fray far more cautiously than Lucius, ready to dodge the moment the stone rain began, while never taking his eyes off Musharna. He clearly knew he, unlike Lucius, was in danger of psychic attacks as well as rocks. Aqua shivered as ice-cold wind started blowing.

"I hate it when he does that..." muttered Toxica.

Aqua wrapped her tail around her body for heat. "Join the club..."

Boreas fired an Ice Beam at the bobbing Musharna and kept firing it continuously, then suddenly stopped. His movement ended entirely. Only his face moved, looking completely focussed and resolved, but quickly tiring. Aqua wondered how he was holding up against the psychic attack, and briefly admired how handsome he looked, determined like this, before remembering she was angry with him.

–

Boreas strained to keep the powerful other mind out of his own. He could feel its thoughts pressing against his, trying to get in, and he only focussed on keeping them out. But it was a losing battle; the psychic was stronger than him, and it was only a matter of time before it was in his mind... Just like the Exeggutor. It getting into his mind had led directly to Diego impersonating Zeph... He tried to repress the anger at the thought, since it would hamper his focus, but then stopped as he had an idea. Instead, he thought back to how Diego had hung him from the Ferris wheel by his tail. His mind ignited with fury as he recalled the Zoroark callously breaking his leg and Aqua's back. He though back to Capella being caught in the disintegrating Hyper Beam, and he recalled the Zangeese killing his parents. He even reminded himself of his fight with Aqua the day before.

By the time Musharna's mind entered his own, it found a boiling sea of rage inside. It tried to grasp his thoughts, but since they were completely covered in fury, it was like trying to read letters that were ablaze. Boreas heard its voice in his mind, but his rage easily drowned it out. He lashed out at the foreign mind inside his own with an inferno of anger. It recoiled, trying to pull away, but Boreas kept unleashing his fury against it, grabbing a hold of it with thoughts like burning chains. _YOU WANTED TO GET INTO MY THOUGHTS?! WELL HERE THEY ARE, TAKE THEM! AND THOSE!_

Musharna escaped from his mind, and recoiled in reality, moving for the first time in the battle. Boreas pounced it in a rain of Ice Beams, driven by the blazing fury that still coursed through his veins. "Too hot for you?! Then let me cool you down!"

He kept attacking and attacking the pinned-down Musharna furiously until it finally gave up its futile counterattacks. Boreas laughed; it had felt very good to unleash his anger both physically and mentally like that. But his laughter faded when his next opponent appeared: a large, living bell with two metal arms. "Crap, a Bronzong..." muttered Boreas, fully aware of how little he could do to steel-types.

He aimed Ice Beams at the thing's red eyes, but even those were made of metal. The closest thing to pain the attack seemed to cause the Bronzong was a thin veil of white frost that appeared over its eyes. At least that would blind it. Bronzong lunged at Boreas with its entire body, and the Glaceon quietly sidestepped to dodge it. But he had counted out of Bronzong's psychic powers and received a heavy metal arm in the face for it. His head spinning and buzzing with pain, he was hit by the Bronzong's even heavier body while still recovering.

–

Though Aqua was still angry at Boreas, she was happy when Black switched her in after him so she could beat the Bronzong. She certainly wasn't going to allow anyone other than herself to hurt him. She flooded the centre of the battlefield; Caitlin jumped back on the bed so as not to get wet feet and hair. Bronzong flung its heavy body at Aqua, but she swam far faster than its attack. She formed a rapid whirlpool around the clunky metal pokémon.

She felt its mind attack her own, and dived underwater, swimming rapidly and allowing her natural colour to camouflage her. If she made sure to keep moving so fast it couldn't pinpoint her, it couldn't psychically attack her either. Aqua made the water around Bronzong boil, its heavy body helpless against the scalding whirlpool, its metal armour conducting the heat to the flesh within.

It took a while before Caitlin retracted Bronzong, but when she did, Aqua laughed victoriously. "That's what you get for hurting Boreas!" she looked around to see if Boreas had heard that, and breathed a sigh of relief as she saw he was still out.

Another mind pierced Aqua's with incredible force, and disappeared instantly. Aqua gasped with shock as she saw what had appeared in the whirlpool: a tremendous four-legged metal tank of a pokémon that didn't seem to be affected by the currents or heat. Its small red eyes looked at her from between a white cross on its face. "Kyogre preserve me..." said Aqua in despair. She had heard of the sheer power that was Metagross, and she knew right there the battle was lost. It would take most of the team to defeat this opponent, and even if they did more pokémon would follow.

Metagross lifted off on jets, flying straight for her, so Aqua did the only thing she could think of: she swam as fast as she could to stay away from the far more powerful pokémon. It jetted after her, through the water, and she kept swimming and swimming, even when her entire body was in agony as a psychic bolt hit her. The rest of Black's team was telling her to attack her enemy, but her fear told her to escape it; and did so even more when another psychic bolt weakened her. But then she heard what Selene shouted at her: "It's not what you think it is! It's an Alakazam!"

An Alakazam? If that was true, the psychic attack she had felt in the beginning had planted the image of the Metagross in her head, while the real McCoy had simply been sitting back and occasionally hitting her with attacks. As she thought about that, she realised Alakazam had been standing in the middle of the battlefield all the time, watching her swim around; her mind had just ignored it as someone else's problem. Her cheeks glowing with anger and shame, Aqua recreated the boiling whirlpool around her actual enemy, ignoring the fake Metagross, and collapsed it with Alakazam right in the middle.

Alakazam put up its arms a moment before it would be submerged in the boiling water. Its spoons glowed and a bubble-like forcefield protected it from the worst of Aqua's onslaught of water. She lashed out at it again, but the Barrier protected it well. Aqua had another idea that gave her a malicious grin on her face: she just created a powerful downward current in the water, keeping Alakazam at the bottom of the water in its bubble. Now it was just a matter of waiting. After a while, Alakazam realised what she was doing and attacked her mind. Aqua screamed underwater as her every nerve was burning with pain, but she didn't relent and kept at it. The pain was terrible, but eventually stopped as Alakazam gave up for lack of oxygen.

Aqua let go of the water, which flowed away rapidly while her unconscious opponent surfaced. She panted, trying to recover from the relentless psychic attacks, but she was still overwhelmed with them. A bizarre floating creature inside a translucent green blob appeared. The Reuniclus entered her mind with little resistance, and she felt herself fall asleep.

–

Aqua's consciousness returned to her bit by bit. Her sense of smell was one of the first things to return, and she smelled Boreas. She felt his fur too, so she gently caressed it as she opened her eyes. She saw Boreas, alright, but he looked at her oddly, uncomfortably. She wondered why he looked at her like that. Then she remembered, retracted her paws, and looked away.

Aqua focused on the battle instead of her faux pas. Selene was fighting a creature that looked like she had designed it herself. Aqua nudged Toxica. "What in Kyogre's name is that thing, and how long have I been out?"

"It's a Sigilyph," said Toxica. "And you haven't been out that long; Selene beat the Reuniclus pretty quickly. You did well, you know. Even with the Alakazam."

Aqua blushed. "It made me think it was a Metagross, and I panicked."

An aerial battle was taking place between the bird and the flying thing. Sigilyph emitted waves of sharp air from the third eye on top of its head, while Selene swooped at it with claws wrapped in dark energy, trying to dodge the waves of air. Unfortunately she was too clumsy a flyer for it, and got hit time and again. While she got in a couple of good hits too, she eventually went down.

Black looked at his two remaining pokémon indecisively: they were both grass-types. "Um... Uh... Octa, please do your best, we can't lose this..."

"I shall do what I can, old chap." Octa startled everyone by drawing his Leaf Blade, and immediately throwing it at Sigilyph. It was hit in the wing and came crashing down to the ground, where Octa rushed for it and wrapped it with his long body. Sigilyph flapped its wings trying to escape, but when that didn't work, its eyes glowed. Octa's face contorted in pain and he let out a whimper, but he wrapped Sigilyph only tighter. Despite the pain he was in, he didn't relent and drew his sword from the wing. He seemed about to strike, but stopped.

The Sigilyph and the Serperior looked almost as if they were doing a staring contest, locked in psychic battle in Octa's mind. Octa shivered and his facial expression changed. Aqua wondered what it was like inside his mind right now, who was winning. Incredibly, Octa was still moving the Leaf Blade closer to Sigilyph, bit by bit. He stopped, moved it back a few centimetres... And brought it closer to his enemy again. A small smile played around his lips as the sword approached one of his opponent's eyes.

The mental combat was suddenly broken: Sigilyph tried to dodge Octa's stab, but still received a deep cut even as it escaped from Octa's coil. It flew up, badly wounded, only to be grasped by Octa's vines and thrown back to the ground. It didn't fly up any more.

As Caitlin retracted it, Octa suddenly looked very tired and hurt from the psychic attacks. The pokémon that appeared was a black and purple humanoid that looked like it was wearing a dress. Octa lunged at Gothitelle wildly, but after a single cut he received a psychic attack and dropped too.

Aqua patted Toxica's shoulder with her tail. "Good luck, we're counting on you..."

Toxica took a few nervous steps, ducked, and shot a Solarbeam from her flower right at Gothitelle, ran instantly for it while her hands glowed with energy, and pummelled her fallen opponent with them.

"Yeah!" said Aqua, seeing her friend attack the Gothitelle so fast it had little chance to counterattack. Yet eventually it threw Toxica off and attacked her mind, but by then, it was looking very weak: Toxica had poisoned it with powder from her flower. It still attacked Toxica, but soon went down too.

"You... Won," said Caitlin. "Somehow, you've defeated the entire Elite Four."

"You're right..." mumbled Black. "We really did it!"

Caitlin gave a little smile. "Yes, you did. You will be allowed to challenge our new Champion tomorrow. Just check the statue in the centre of the plaza then; the way to the Champion will be open for you."

–

Black's pokémon were being healed in the pokécenter when the unmistakable voices of Bianca and Cheren were heard.

"He did it! He did it, he did it, he did it!"

"I know, I saw it myself, it was very impressive. But will you stop saying that?"

"You're just jealous because Black gets to challenge the- Heeey, Black!"

"Bianca, Cheren, it's wonderful to see you again!"

"We saw everything!" yipped Bianca. "It was so awesome how you won!"

Cheren smiled. "You did well, Black."

"Thanks!" said Black, blooming with happiness. "But now you have to tell me, what have you two been up to since I last saw you?"

"Well," said Cheren, "for my part, I first stayed in Opelucid for a while. After Nacrene fell to Team Plasma and Drayden died, it took a while for Iris to be made the official Gym Leader, so I couldn't leave on Victory Road. When I finally defeated her, I tried to make it through the Black Mountains, but because it was so late in the year by that time the snowstorms ended up forcing me to turn back. I was lucky to make it back at all, really."

"So what about you, Bianca?" asked Black. "Did you go onto Victory Road too?"

Bianca was uncharacteristically silent and sullen for a moment. "No, I didn't. I... I was scared out of my wits by all that was happening around me. Nacrene being conquered by Team Plasma was terrifying, but I saw that Opelucid was quickly being conquered by them too: not by force, but through people's minds. People would hiss horrible things at me in the streets, just because I had pokémon. Team Plasma was beginning to move freely and openly, and they got ever closer to ruling the city. People were scared and gloomy, and the city seemed to turn grey. I knew they'd soon get me, and I just couldn't handle the fear. I even considered liberating my pokémon... Not because I agreed with Team Plasma at all, but because I knew they'd at least be properly free that way, while if Team Plasma got me, they'd be enslaved by those hypocrites, while they would probably kill me...

I had to get away from it all; I wanted to go home. So I took the train south. But I didn't go all the way: for some reason, I got out in Nimbasa. I think it was because of the happy memories of staying there with you guys I had from a year back. I was so happy to see things weren't as bad as in Opelucid there. There were still trainers there, and the Gym Leader was well-liked, and people were still a bit happy. I decided to stay there for a while, but I soon found Nimbasa too was falling into their grip... The city was turning grey too.

When I called home, Mum told me things were just as bad there. I realised there was nowhere to run any more, and I despaired... I was in the amusement park when it overcame me, and I just sat on a bench, crying, and decided to liberate my pokémon. I tried to tell them to go, but they wouldn't leave. And then there was suddenly an arm around my shoulder, and a kind voice telling me not to do it, telling me there was hope left. It was Elesa, Black, and she helped me pull myself back together. She told me that though Team Plasma would soon indeed rule Unova, it would be temporary. Many of the Gyms across the land had been closed, and the rest would follow, but the Gym Leaders and Alder had been organising a resistance that was already fighting Team Plasma, and would continue to do so even when they ruled all Unova. When she told me about them, I knew I had to join them. I wanted to help in any way I could, even though it might cost me my life. Elesa wouldn't accept it until I had had a day to calm down and think about it, but even then, I chose to join." She was smiling proudly by now. "Who would've guessed, right? I mean, _me_..."

"I would've," Black smiled. "I always knew there was more to you than you thought."

"Well, I didn't," said Cheren. "It was a big surprise to me when I got back from Victory Road."

"And good luck for him too," laughed Bianca. "Elesa had taken me and two other members of the Nimbasan resistance to Opelucid to help Iris with a big thing. We were just in time to rescue him."

Cheren blushed and scratched the back of his head nervously. "Well, my pokémon and I were starved and frostbitten by the time we got back to Opelucid. We found a grey city completely in Plasma's power, but we didn't exactly have a choice but to hope the pokécenter would help us. But we ran into Team Plasma, and in our weakened state, we were losing. And then suddenly Bianca and Elesa showed up and saved us. I joined the resistance too once they explained it all and helped me recover. But with our greatest hope – you – seemingly lost in the Black Mountains, things were looking bleak after a while. You can imagine how happy we were to hear you'd shown up at the League after all, two months after you were expected."

"We took a little side-tour," explained Black.

Bianca continued: "We wanted to go to you right away once we heard you'd turned up, but since the trains too are controlled by Plasma and they know the League is the last free part of Unova and our centre of operations, it's not exactly easy to get here. The train here is guarded very well. But we finally made it here, and here we are!"

"I'm glad you are," said Black. "So what exactly does the resistance do? Alder has said a couple of things about it and the stuff going on in the rest of Unova, but not much."

"We help people and pokémon, protect them from Team Plasma. They kill anyone with pokémon they find, and capture or kill any pokémon in the cities; they claim that's to protect people against the temptation of catching them. Aside from that, we disrupt Team Plasma's order as much as possible. To hinder them, but mainly to let people now we're there, and that the war isn't over. I mean, you've heard how I felt when I thought there was no hope left; we want people to know Team Plasma hasn't won. And right now, you are our best hope."

"Yeah," said Cheren. "Have you made any progress with Reshiram?"

Black drew the Light Stone from his pocket and shook his head. "Nothing. But I will fight N, legendary or no legendary on my side. And I plan to win. The question is, though, how much that will do to Plasma. I think N is the only one living in a fantasy world where this battle will automatically determine what's going to happen to Unova. He's just a figurehead; I'm pretty sure the Sages won't be fazed by his defeat."

Cheren shrugged. "I don't know what they're going to do. But if you win and make N see things our way, that will mean the end of Zekrom's influence on everyone's thoughts. It will also show people Team Plasma's leader – figurehead or not – can be defeated, and therefore Plasma can. Elesa thinks a morale boost like that will be enough to get a lot of people on our side, and might end up being enough to win this after all."

"I hope so... But do you think Plasma is actually going to let a battle with N happen at all if that's at stake? They can probably just make me disappear before I ever face him."

"They know they need Zekrom," said Alder, who had suddenly walked into the pokécenter. "Their control over Unova depends on its influence on people's minds for a large part. Without it, far more people would see what they're doing is wrong, and they would have more hope something could be done about it. It would give us far more support. But Plasma only has Zekrom as long as they have N, and to keep him on their side, they've got to play along. They have to let you fight him for that."

Cheren stood up straight, as if he were a soldier. "Champion Alder!"

Alder smiled wryly. "Not any more, Cheren, I'm just Alder now. But if things go well tomorrow, your friend will be Champion Black."

Black nodded nervously. "I hope so... I think you're right; the Sages are too smart to risk losing N's support by doing anything against me before I battle him. But say I win, what do you think they'll do?"

Alder sighed. "That's the big question. Much of the resistance is here, in our headquarters, and I've summoned as many more as can be spared. We're as ready as we'll ever be for whatever Plasma will do, but what that is, we won't find out until tomorrow. We've got your back, but remember that we'll lose if it comes to a full-on battle with all of Team Plasma."

Black nodded nervously. "I'll have to win first, though..."

"Yes, you will. Do you understand your pokémon better now?"

"Yes, I do... But Reshiram still hasn't appeared."

"That's not important. The most important thing is that you understand and know your pokémon, that they are your friends. Then victory will come to you."

Boreas couldn't help ask: "Then why did _you_ lose to N?"

Black suppressed a chuckle, but fortunately Alder didn't seem to have understood it. "Whatever happens during and after your battle with N, tomorrow will be a day to remember."

"I hope we'll all still be alive to remember it..." muttered Cheren.

That made Aqua think. She quickly became lost in thought, not listening to the humans' conversation any more, as she realised they would enter Team Plasma's castle tomorrow, and possibly never come out again.

–

Aqua was in her room, nervously walking to and fro. Tomorrow was going to be a big day, a very dangerous day, and Boreas' second birthday all in one. She didn't even think he had remembered himself, but she had just realised it; it would be 25 January tomorrow. It wasn't that important, but what was important was that it could be the last day of either or both their lives. The last thing she wanted was to die while she and Boreas were quarrelling. (Though dying while things were well between them was probably the second-last thing she wanted to do) So she had to make up with him, and she knew she would have to do it today, or possibly never have a chance to do it. But it was hard; she felt reluctance to just go to him and-

"Aqua?" a hesitant voice outside the door said.

"B-Boreas?" Aqua blurted out, conflicting emotions filling her. "What are you doing here?"

"I... I have come to apologise to you..." he said.

Aqua quickly got in the bed, watching the door with a frown as if Boreas could see her through it. _Maybe he can_, she thought. _There's a hole in the door for those things humans use to lock other things. He's probably looking through it. _"Oh?" she said simply, finding it hard to think of something else to say.

"I wanted to tell you that you were right. I love you, and I really do want to share my life with you. You were right that that should mean not keeping secrets like this from you."

Aqua felt her heart beating strongly for the lovely Glaceon outside the door, and partially wanted to run outside and tell him with a kiss that he was forgiven. Yet some pride held her back. "Look," she said as level as possible, "you'll wake up everyone if you keep talking in the corridor. So why don't you come inside instead?"

The door opened so soon after she said that it was hard to imagine Boreas' nervous system had a reaction delay time. Boreas was beaming happily and walked to her, but Aqua said: "Hold it, I only said you could come in, not any closer."

The look of disappointment on Boreas' face was too cute for words, and Aqua couldn't help but flash a mean smile. Boreas clearly noticed it, as he grinned. "Aww, what do I have to say so you'll forgive me?"

"Well," said Aqua, unable to keep a straight face, "you could continue talking about how much you love me."

Boreas made a mocking bow. "Of course, my lady. Anything else?"

"Well, then you could tell me how beautiful you consider me to be, and how I'm always right."

Boreas grinned. "Alright then. Your fur gleams like the ocean, and your eyes are beautiful black gemstones. And your lips..." Suddenly he ran across the room, jumped, and landed on the bed on top of her. "Just beg for a kiss!"

"Eep!" Aqua squealed and laughed. "Get off me!" She covered his face in the blanket, and a playful romp ensued as she tried to throw him out of the bed while he tried to kiss her. After a lot of laughs and struggling, Aqua finally let Boreas win and lost herself in the wonderful kiss. She looked into Boreas' cyan eyes for a long time, feeling like nothing but he mattered in the world. She expressed her feelings in four simple words, but knew Boreas knew there was far more behind them.

"I love you, Boreas."

–

AUTHOR'S NOTES: With the Elite Four all beaten, we are really moving to the end of the story. I'm glad they're done; the Elite Four battles were hard to write. By the way, I know some of you were expecting Caitlin to have reappeared before. After all, Grimsley, Shauntal, and Marshal have. I considered for a long time having her appear in Opelucid City, but there just wasn't time for it, and there was no purpose to it. So, the only place she's appeared before is in chapter 64. As for her team, it's directly based on her rematch team in Black and White, but with Metagross replaced with Alakazam. You'll learn why later.

I've decided to give out my email, both for people who have read my fic but don't want to use the Review system for whatever reason, and just for any other reader too, really. Feel free to send me a mail if you like. That includes spam, by the way, as long as it has amusing titles. My email is jochematteveld at gmail dot com.

FEEDBACK: Q: What an interesting story! It's been a few days since I found a promising story, so this is fantastic.

The characters are interesting and developed, and have clearly separated morals. And through that you've shown that you have a good grasp of morality. Even though this is the first chapter, I'm curious to see if you can manage to blur them, a new skill altogether.

A: Thank you very much, I hope you will keep enjoying it. I look forward to hearing more of your thoughts on it.

Q: May I say that Octa is an immensely likeable character?

A: Of course you may.

Q: Also, are all the words (such as sesquipedalian) all part of your vocabulary? Or did you research them beforehand? If you already knew them, then your vocabulary exceeds mine to a disheartening degree...

A: Most of them were already part of my vocabulary, though I looked up a couple. But I'm sure that your vocabulary still exceeds mine overall; it'd be a remarkable achievement if that wasn't so, considering English isn't my native language.

Q: I've come to the conclusion that your strong point is character development, and I've yet to see any narrative weaknesses whatsoever. But I see that I have another 64 chapters to read, so I better brace myself for the long haul!

A: Thanks, but I think you might mean character depth. Because I can't remember having put much character development in the first three chapters.

Q: Out of curiosity, have you read the manga? The Black/White chapters to be exact?

A: Yes, I have read the manga. I haven't got to the Black and White chapters, though; I stopped somewhere in the Diamond/Pearl chapters, mainly because I couldn't find the newer ones. I guess it's one of the inspirations for this story, with its darker tone, more dangerous enemies, and clever battle strategies.

ChristianDragon: Q: Ha! I'm already liking Octa as well! Octavianus? Why do I get the suspicious feeling that derives from Doctor Octavious from the Spider Man series?

A: I don't know why you get that feeling; I've never heard of that character myself. Octa is named after Emperor Augustus (His name was Octavianus before he became the first Emperor).

Q: N? His name is N? That's a rather unusual name.

A: Yeah, it is. His full name was later revealed to be Natural Harmonia Gropius, but since that is far fruitier even than N, I'm not using it at all in this story. As far as I'm concerned, he is simply called N.

Q: In any case, let me understand how this whole pokemon liberation works. Team Plasma believes that pokemon should live equally as humans do by not being confined and ordered to battle? That they and humans should coincide in a society that's happy and free or something?

A: That's what N believes, yeah. And it's Team Plasma's public goal too. You'll find out eventually what they actually believe.

Maquerea: Q: Well, I just spent the last few days reading the entire story so far, and I absolutely have not regretted it.

A: That's wonderful, I'm glad it managed to grip you enough to read it all.

Q: I typically don't indulge myself in reading that includes so much romance, but your work is incredibly wholesome, with humour, great action scenes, and Diego. He's quite an interesting character, and without those scenes showing his point of view my opinion and interest in him would be considerably lesser. A close second would be Selene.

A: You'll be happy to hear there's more with him in the future, then. And at least one very important scene viewed through his eyes.

Q: Anyway, I enjoy your writing, though sometimes I see near-identical words in close proximity. 67 chapters was a lot to take in, so I can't exactly recall any examples, but they only appeared once or twice, if I remember right.

A: Yeah, I try to avoid that but occasionally I slip up.

Sonosublime: Q: Although you skipped half the battle, what you did write was very good.

A: Thanks.

Q: And all the relationship drama is coming to a head. It's a good subplot, although I hope you delve more into how Toxica feels about all this.

A: I probably will, though it depends a bit on whether I have time for it. The end is near.

Q: And wow, Gaius is a douchebag klein bottle alright.

A: We're very much seeing his bad side here.

TheGlaceonFanatic: Q: I've read your story up to this chapter and must say this is really good! I usually don't like to read about human-pokemon adventures, but you are it from pokemons POV, which's making this a lot more interesting!

A: I don't like most Journey fics that much either; the ones I do like all have some clever twist. One I really enjoy named 404 Error is set in the universe the Glitch pokémon come from, for example. I'm glad you seem to enjoy the twist in my story too.

Q: It's also written very well, and i can see that you added a bit of others languages too! The only i recognized was german, but it was pretty awesome!

A: So far, I've had Rood speak a bit of Dutch (my native language), Gorm threw some Gaelic terms about (That I all looked up. Sorry to anyone actually speaking Gaelic for probably butchering it), and Bronius spoke a bit of German.


	69. The King's Castle

Chapter Sixty-Nine: The King's Castle

Octa had clarity for the first time in weeks. He had lain awake until past two in the night, but now he was sure his judgement was correct. Like most nights lately, he hadn't slept, thinking about Toxica and his family. All of the things that had been said to him - by Toxica, by Boreas, by Gaius - spooked through his mind. But now at long last he had come to a decision. It was quite a terrifying decision, so he knew the only way he would ever execute it was to do it right now, while his resolve was strong. He left his chamber and slithered quietly down the corridor, going outside.

Gaius had made it quite clear his house would not accept his relationship with Toxica; what was more, Octa knew the piece of his ancestors in himself didn't accept it. For his entire life, he had considered himself a member of the house of Equinox in the first place. It made life easy, as many questions and choices were made for him by that identity. In any difficult situation, the answer to "What shall I do?" was simple: "Do what an Equinox does." Every hard choice he ever had to make was simply a matter of either following the house's rules and traditions, or doing what and Equinox would do. Even risking his life was made easy by it: risking one's life for honour or to help others was what an Equinox did.

Boreas and Toxica were not like that at all. They had no such simple answer to the question of who they were, and had to completely define who they were themselves. They had no solid rules for making hard choices; a strange, scary idea to Octa, yet Boreas had praised it. But in truth, Octa had made plenty of choices that weren't the Equinox choices when it came to them. Saving Boreas' life and taking care of him was what an Equinox should do. But his Equinox heritage certainly didn't tell him to become such good friends with a common, non well-bred Eevee like him. It very much dissuaded him from falling in love with Toxica, yet he had done so and rejected his chosen bride for her.

But now he had made the most difficult choice of his life: keeping to his family's ways and rejecting Toxica was by far the easiest choice here, the one his heritage told him to make. And he had almost made it. The alternative was far scarier than all the life-threatening horrors he had encountered together.

Lost in thought, Octa had walked through the nightly League, and now stood at Gaius' door. He took a deep breath, knowing this had to be done, though his loss was terrible. He knocked at the door. He knocked harder after a while.

"Who disturbs me at this hour?" said his brother's sleepy voice.

"'Tis me, brother, Octa. I need to speak to you immediately."

The door opened. "Very well then, enter... I do hope this is something important..." Gaius guided him into the room.

"Yes, brother, it is. I have come to tell you I am stepping out of the house of Equinox; rescinding my nobility."

Gaius' jaw dropped and he stared at Octa silently.

"I wish for you to return to our ancestral home, announce this to my family, and request my name be stricken from our family tree."

Silence.

"I am no longer Octavianus VII of the house of Equinox; I shall simply be Octa."

More silence.

"'Tis not the first time in your house's history this has happened; though most of the other cases were involuntary. I make this choice voluntarily, for I choose Toxica. I choose my friends."

"..."

"I make this choice, because my relationship with Toxica and my friendships are incompatible with house Equinox's philosophy. While I could reunite with Toxica, yet attempt to remain a member of our house as I have done so far, I have come to see these things are impossible to unite. Too many of you are opposed to my relationship, and eventually this choice would be forced upon me anyway. 'Tis very possible my resolve to make the right choice, not the easy one, will not be as strong as it is tonight when that time comes. Therefore, I am making this choice right now."

"..."

"Well?" said Octa impatiently. "Have you nothing to say?"

Gaius frowned and spoke slowly. "This is the greatest error of your life, brother. You cannot throw away your heritage; least of all for this."

"No, not an error" said Octa resolutely, "'tis the hardest choice in my life, yes. The one that will give me the most difficulty, certainly. The one that required most bravery to make, easily. Despite all that, 'tis not an error, but the best choice I have ever made."

"...Fine, do as you wish, Octa the Houseless," spat Gaius. "I shall return home right now to ensure your will be done. But I must warn you: if this is a ploy to gain sympathy for you, it shan't work. I will see to that."

"It isn't. I have told you my reasons."

"Fine. Our house shall be better off without your foppery threatening its very foundations. And with you gone, none other shall remotely stand a chance as father's successor against me. How ironic; your decision to betray your house shall benefit it so greatly by ending your negative influence over it once and for all and ensuring its future leader shall be a wise one indeed."

"Wisdom is clearly in the eye of the beholder. Now if you will excuse me, I have others to reveal my decision to."

"Do as you wish, Octa Vagabond, I care not. I shall depart shortly to ensure this joyous news reaches _my_ family."

"They still are my family as well, brother," hissed Octa. "I stepped out of our house, but this does not mean you are no longer my brother, lord Publius Cornelius still my father-"

"You betray us!" snapped Gaius. "You have been seduced by this common witch to betray our house and everything it stands for and still you claim relation! You are no brother of mine, Octa the fallen; you have failed and lost your grandeur. 'Tis no more than right that you should leave our house; in fact I likely would have forced you to leave once I became our family's leader!"

"Now-"

"I thought you had regained your wisdom, but it is clear to me now you never had it in the first place. The obviously higher concentration of Equinox's blood that flows through my veins must have come at the expense of your own. Leave my room now, I have nothing more to say to you!" snapped Gaius.

Octa looked in shock at his brother's face, contorted with hate. "So be it," he said, leaving. "But 'tis not I who has fallen, Gaius; it is you. The day you lead the house of Equinox shall be a dark one indeed."

The door slammed shut behind him, and he soon found himself trembling with anger at his brother's insults. Yet in Gaius' face and words, both twisted by fury, he had at last seen what was truly wrong with their house, even with him: their pride had turned to arrogance. They all considered themselves naturally superior to others. Octa had realised the true reason for Gaius' anger was his leaving meant he considered houseless life an improvement. By giving up his nobility, he had implied an Equinox was an equal to commoners, far more so than just by choosing Toxica. He knew now the rest of his family would see it the same way as Gaius, that he himself would've seen it in the same way had it been someone else making this decision. For he knew he was no stranger to this arrogance himself.

Lost in thought, he had walked across the nightly League again and reached the complex where their own rooms were. Now, he knew, he would have to beg Toxica's forgiveness. The thought of it didn't appeal to him, yet he knew it had to be done. The voice that told him an Equinox couldn't do something like that was hard to ignore, even now that he was no longer a member of the house. He would have to do it now, while he could overcome his pride.

He knocked on Toxica's door with his tail.

He knocked again when there was no answer.

"...Hwhah...?" sounded a sleepy voice from inside.

"Toxica, my darling, may I please enter?"

"Don't you 'darling' me," said the voice, suddenly very awake. "Piss off, Octa."

Octa was going to parley more to try and gain permission to enter, but realised they'd wake up everyone. Instead, he simply entered. "HEY!" shouted Toxica from the bed. "I told you to piss off!"

Octa closed the door behind him but didn't approach any more. "My apologies for the intrusion at this late hour against your wishes, but I need to speak to you right now."

"You can go jump off a mountain, Octa, I don't want to talk to you."

"Please hear me out... What I have to say is incredibly important, and I fear if I don't say it now, I never shall. You do not need to say anything in return, I just want you to hear it."

"Well, I don't want to hear it, sod off."

Octa didn't obey, but talked. "I was wrong. I have been terribly wrong all along to consider you beneath me. I am an arrogant Serperior, from an arrogant house. But no longer; for I have just informed my brother I am leaving the house of Equinox. I have rescinded my nobility, for it prevents me from being with you and gave me illusions of grandeur. If I have learned anything from the two years I have spent with you and other pokémon not of noble descent, it is that a descendant of Equinox is no better than you. That I am no better than you.

My arrogance blinded me. It made me blame you for my weakness on Victory Road, for I could not believe I could possess the same failings an ordinary person would." Octa was a little shocked he had said all that, yet he knew it was nothing but the truth. He prostrated himself humbly before Toxica. "My dear, dear Toxica. I have not given you the respect you deserved. Leaving you for my own shortcomings was an arrogant, awful decision. I am sorry. I beg your forgiveness for my shortcomings and my treatment of you. I have left the house of Equinox for this, and now am truly nothing more than Octavianus. If you can find it within you to forgive me and give me a second chance, I will treat you as you deserve in the future."

It was silent. While Octa could see Toxica, it was too dark to see the expression on her face under her flower. "You... Gave up your nobility for me?"

Octa nodded. "I realised I could not have both you and it. I have made my choice."

"Look," said Toxica hesitantly, "why don't you go back to your brother and tell him you've changed your mind? That it was all a joke or something?"

Octa felt his hope sink. He knew why she was saying this. "No, I shan't. Even if you reject me, I shall consider myself to be of the house of Equinox nevermore. For my brother's reaction educated me. He accused me of treason, among other things. I know now of our greatest flaw: our arrogance. My arrogance. I see myself as better than others, and it has to stop. Whether you forgive me or not, I do not wish to be a part of the house of Equinox again."

"Well..." Toxica said hesitantly. "It was really brave of you to leave your house... But you've really gone too far this time. I don't feel I can trust you any more, so it's really over between us."

Octa sighed in resignation. "As... You wish. 'Tis my own fault for breaking up with you like that, I suppose. If I hadn't been so foolish, so arrogant..."

Octa felt furious at himself, and realised he couldn't control his emotions any more. He rushed out of the room, not listening to something Toxica said, and rushed to his own room.

–

25 January of that year was a date well remembered by the history books as the day the Plasma War's outcome was decided. A dark, violent, bloody day; a day of great sorrow when hope died along with its heroes. A day of death.

Yet for Boreas the day began as peaceful as it could be. He softly hugged Aqua, watching her sleep next to him. It sounded like a storm was brewing outside, but Boreas just listened to Aqua occasionally mumbling or giggling cutely in her sleep. Eventually she slowly opened her eyes and smiled as she saw him. "Happy birthday, good-looking."

"Birthday? Oh yeah, it _is_ my birthday... I hadn't even remembered with all that's going on."

"I know," chuckled Aqua, kissing him, "that's why I remembered it for you."

When they left Boreas' room an hour later to have breakfast, they found the mood had changed from the days before. Toxica no longer stared at Octa furiously, instead they mostly evaded each other's gazes and said little to each other. At least it didn't make the atmosphere as pressing as the days before, and they chatted about the storm raging outside a bit.

At last it was time to go, as Bianca and Cheren came to pick Black up. As soon as they walked outside, Boreas was almost blown off his feet by the tempest. The valley of the League was very dark, though dawn - which came very late here - was likely near. The occasional flash of lightning illuminated the entire valley, though, showing scary purple-black clouds gyring above. A constant downpour of cold rain soaked Boreas' fur in an instant.

Aqua struggled against the storm as they walked. "Can't you stop this storm?"

Boreas chuckled, though he too was struggling. "Not really, no. I can make it stronger, if you like."

"But your powers allow you to create wind, don't they? Just make wind in the opposite direction or something."

"It doesn't work like that. I don't really control the air when I do that, it's more like I remove the air's inhibitions and unleash the chaos in it. I basically let it do what it wants, but it's already doing that. So I can make wind, but I'm not very good at calming it down, because that requires controlling the air instead, and that's far harder to do. Besides, if I made wind in the opposite direction of already blowing wind, they wouldn't cancel out but circle around each other, forming a cyclone."

An ear-splitting thunderbolt drowned out Aqua's reply. Boreas was going to ask her to repeat it, but Octa began talking to him. "My dear fellow, I have taken your advice."

"Huh?" asked Boreas. "Well, good job! What advice?"

"That which you said about choices. I have taken it to heart and informed my brother I am leaving my house."

"Sorry, I think I misheard you over the wind's howling."

"No, you haven't. I have come to realise the arrogance of it all, the danger of the belief one is inherently superior to others. My brother's reaction confirmed it. He shall probably have arrived home by now, so my family likely knows of this now, so alea iacta est."

"Woah... Octa, couldn't you have just tried to make up with Toxica instead? I'm glad you came to your senses, but isn't this a bit too extreme?"

Octa braced himself against a particularly strong gust. "No, my dear fellow, for I have come to realise the nature of the greater problem. Besides, 'tis likely I would eventually succumb to weakness once more if I stayed with my house. And this way I also show Toxica I am serious about my desire to make up with her."

"So how'd she respond?"

Octa looked away sadly. "She rejected me."

"Then I'll talk to her later," said Boreas. "I know how much your family and your ancestors mean to you."

"Thank you, my dear fellow, but it is unnecessary... I just wish all this wasn't necessary... I had hoped despite leaving my house I wouldn't lose my family, that they could accept my choice, but Gaius' reaction told me all. I have essentially lost my whole family."

"Not your whole family. You're _my_ brother, Octa."

Octa smiled warmly. "Thank you, my dear fellow."

By then, they had gone as far as Bianca and Cheren were allowed to go. "Good luck, Black," said Cheren. "I wish I could go in to fight with you, but you'll have to do this alone."

"I can't believe you have to go into Plasma's castle alone..." said Bianca. "Be careful, okay?"

"Thanks, guys. But I won't be alone: I've got my pokémon."

They walked into the building. This time, however, something had changed: a circle on the floor around the statue in the plaza's centre was glowing green. Black cautiously stepped into the circle and motioned for his pokémon to follow. Once they were on it too, the entire circle, including the statue, rose like an elevator. A hatch in the roof opened and the elevator made them go through, statue and all. They emerged into a wide area on top of the building. The four towers of the Elite Four were all around them, while the fifth tower was ahead, a huge flight of stairs ascending to it. But behind that tower, dark shadows of the Plasma castle stuck out against the dark clouds. They ascended the stairs in silence. The entrance to the Champion's tower was beautiful, ancient columns supporting it.

The Champion's room inside had obviously been very beautiful once. More stairs led up to a platform in the middle of a golden room which was supposed to be lit by torches. But the wall had been breached by three dark bridges. Rubble from the intrusion was all over the room, and a powerful stormwind blew through the tower and had extinguished the torches. Puddles of water had formed from the rain. Through the holes created by the bridges the many dark towers of the castle were visible.

"Not quite," whispered Octa to Boreas, "the chamber I imagined when I first told you about our quest, my dear fellow."

"Well," said Black, taking the Light Stone from his pocket, "this is it. If you have any plans to come out of that thing, now would be a good time." The stone was as immobile as ever. Black turned to his pokémon. "It's up to us. But that's alright: we can do this."

He stepped onto the bridge and walked through the hole. On the wet path over abyssal depths the storm's unpredictable winds became quite scary and made Boreas wish he _was_ able to calm it down. Fortunately they managed to cross the bridge without any of them falling off, and they entered the castle's dark gate. It led into a large open-air courtyard on the top of a tower. Black and his pokémon instantly braced themselves for a tough fight, but the courtyard was deserted. In the darkness of the storm, the courtyard was dominated by the tallest tower of the castle, which had huge Plasma banners hanging from it. It seemed likely that was where N's throne room was.

Crossing the courtyard, they entered the castle's inner parts. Large hallways and rooms decorated with Plasma banners and large ceremonial shields with the Plasma logo on it were all along their path, yet they didn't meet anyone. "It's gotta be a trick..." mumbled Lucius.

Boreas looked behind him every now and then so he could recall the way back if needed. They occasionally left the inner parts of the castle, walking through courtyards or over walls outside in the storm.

When they were getting close to the tallest tower, they passed a very unusual room. It was larger than any other they had passed, but looked like a child's bedroom. There were many toys, including model trains and a little Ferris wheel. Pictures of pokémon hung on the walls. There were dolls laying around, all of them were of pokémon: not a single human.

"What the hell?" mumbled Black as they wandered inside in confusion. Boreas chuckled when he saw one of the model trains had been thrown through a basket ball hoop and got stuck there, still hanging. There was a full bookcase too: all books about pokémon. With the exception of one shelf, which seemed mainly to contain history books. Reading their spines, Boreas realised most of them were about various atrocities humans had committed.

"Do you suppose this is where N grew up?" Boreas wondered.

"If that's so," said Octa, "this castle must be far older than we thought. It must have existed underground for at least fifteen years, probably twenty."

"Look," said Toxica, with a piece of paper in her hand. "I picked this up from the ground." It was a childish drawing of a stickfigure and a Zorua, captioned with 'me' and 'deigo' in a child's handwriting. Boreas picked up some other papers. Many of them had similar childish drawings. One of them had the stickfigure wearing a crown and was captioned 'n the king of all pogeymans'. This one featured another human (as well as many pokémon): a bigger stickman captioned 'ghestschitch'.

"Yeah," said Aqua, "this must have been where he grew up... He always said he grew up with pokémon, even believed he was one in human form himself. I guess the Sages must've kept him here. He's not a bad person, really, they've just brainwashed him. I hope I can talk some sense into him... After all, I'm his friend, or was anyway."

"I hope you can," said Black. "But in any case, we've lingered here long enough. Let's go and do what we came here to."

They left the room, walked out of the corridor, and onto a section of the wall ascending to meet the highest tower. They entered the doors and saw N waiting on his throne.

–

AUTHOR'S NOTES: And with that, we are really nearing the end! One more chapter until they battle N and finish their quest. I'll tell you, it's been a wonderful seventy chapters to write (well, at least fifty of them were wonderful to write. Sometimes it was a bit of a pain). Of the ten parts this story has, each had there own fun things and less fun things to write, but I think I had the most fun with By Inferno's Light; part eight. It was great fun to write about the beginning of the war with Team Plasma and work hints to the identity of the mole in as subtly as possible.

Anyway, I managed to write this chapter somewhat quickish (a year ago I would've called two weeks between chapters very long, but nowadays it's quick) because I'm quite excited about the near end, so there's a good chance chapter 70 will appear reasonably fast. Though as you can imagine, it's going to be a long chapter to be able to end things.

–

FEEDBACK: UEG nastykiller: Q: This is a very good story and I been enjoying. On you saying that you won't use N's full name, I am curious why not only put his full name in the battle between N and Black? It would sound very official.

A: It would also sound very stupid. As far as I'm concerned, N is simply named N, and atural Harmonia Gropius doesn't enter into it. I've changed plenty of things from the game universe already, so I don't feel bound to stick to his (ludicrous) full name.

TheGlaceonFanatic: Q: Splendid chapters [28]! They were really good! I especially liked the describing of the areas(But the battle with Elesa was a bit confusing though)

A: Thanks. If I remember correctly, I had received a couple of comments pointing out I describe the scene too little, so I began work on improving that, and it's neat that you noticed. I can see how the Elesa battle would be confusing too.

Q: I read the comment to my review in your newest chapter, since i assumed that mine be there like the others. I think could recognize a bit of the dutch, but i didn't have any guesses that time. Wonder if you have more languages in future chapter xD

A: Can't really remember if I put in any more languages... I might've dropped some French with Zinzolin, Japanese with Ryoku, and Italian with Giallo.

Q: And just one more question... why don't you PM others instead of answering it in the chapter? Just curios...

A: I reply in the chapter because of rule 59 of the internet: lurkers always outnumber non-lurkers by a factor between five and tenthousand times. Judging by the FF traffic stats thing, it's somewhere around forty to fifty times in the case of my story. Plenty of people never say anything on the internet, no matter what; yet these people might very well have similar questions. Every comment I get likely represents the thoughts of several people. Add to that that answering the comments publicly prevents getting the same question over and over again. In short, replying to every comment in private is far less efficient since only one person receives the answer, while replying in public ensures anyone who wants receives the answer.

Incidentally, I apply this policy only towards FA comments; anyone who asks something in a mail or private message gets it answered in private.

Q: Wow! This chapter [33] was really exciting! The battles and different situation were especially really good! I don't want to write a wall of text, so "It was awesome!" will do xD

A: Thanks, glad you enjoyed it. That was a big chapter, considering it was the one that tied the flashback into the present day portions.

Q: Can't say i'm surprised with the choice, since that kinda would you end your story with a lot of loose ends... xD

A: Well, I could've had Boreas actually leave and have him continue to play his part in the story in a different way. But you're right, that would've been a very surprising thing to do (missed a chance to make the story's title come true).

Q: This [chapter 38] is really sad :'( I wonder why you chose to remove Capella presence from your story. She a had one of the larger roles in the story, so it's very sad to see her go...

A: Well, precisely for such a reaction. As you said, she was pretty much the fourth-most important character (possibly even the third, if you count her above Aqua) , so who better, other than Boreas or Octa, to kill to show characters can die in this story, that Team Plasma is truly dangerous, and to give Boreas a heavy punch in the face? Killing some minor or nameless character doesn't really do much (remember Thomas the Zangoose?), but killing an important one certainly does. Tvtropes calls it the Sacrificial Lion, and while killing off Capella was hard to do and in the end I really considered letting her live (though I had planned Capella's death since before her introduction), I'm glad I didn't give in and had her die. Not only did it give Boreas a ton of character development and heavily affected parts six and seven (and even now still affects the way I write Boreas), but I think it also succeeded in making the Sages seem more dangerous. I actually got a comment on chapter 37 saying "Here we go again..." referring to the upcoming Sage battle. That person was quite shocked by chapter 38.

Q: I could almost feel the hate in the battle, but in the end it looks like Boreas didn't hate Aqua enough to defeat her.

A: It wasn't really a matter of hate; Aqua was simply more powerful. And still is, incidentally. If you ranked Black's pokémon by combat prowess (not counting typing, and going simply by how powerful they would be in-game, so ignoring things like Boreas' clever tricks) it'd go: 1: Octa 2: Aqua and Lucius 4: Boreas and Toxica 6: Selene.

Q: Aww :') they are together again. Great chapter [44]! It's nice to have some happy chapters after the sad ones!

A: Thanks. It was about time to give Boreas (and you, dear readers) a break after the hell he'd been through.

Q: Interesting! I was hoping, that Zeph actually survived, but i understand your points.

A: Dead is dead in my writing. You can remember that rule for my future writing too: if someone comes back from the dead, they're an impostor. Of course, good writing is a matter of following most rules, but breaking a couple of them, so that knowledge isn't of much use.

ChristianDragon: Q: I don't see why Octa should be mad at Boreas for losing[ in chapter 5]. It's his first time in a battle. A lot of new member pokemon can't be expected to win their first battle. At least the training helped.

A: Well, he wasn't really; but he's a proud Snivy and hates losing to an obvious idiot like Jimmy, so he was a bit annoyed.


	70. Black and White

Chapter Seventy: Black and White

"Black, we meet again!" N shouted theatrically. "At last this prophesied day has come! What I desire is a world for pokémon, and pokémon alone. I will separate pokémon and humans, so pokémon can regain their original power!"

The throneroom was huge and lavishly decorated. A long red carpet led in a straight path from the door to N's throne on the other side of the room, up on a series of steps. The throne was large, golden, and decorated with the shapes of various pokémon. To each side of the red carpet were two bodies of water like small indoor lakes. The roof was held up by series of huge columns at the sides of the room, and behind them were impressive statues of pokémon. Four pokémon stood before N's throne: Klinklang, Carracosta, Archeops, and Vanilluxe. There was no sign of any other human or pokémon. Other than the main door they had entered through, there were several other doors in the half of the room where N's throne was.

Aqua spoke up. "N, it's time to stop this charade!"

N stood up from his throne, surprised. "Aqua? So you really survived what those trainers did to you? Boreas told me, but I could barely believe it; this is great!"

"The only one who did anything to me that day was your friend Diego. He was the one who broke my back and tried to kill me, but I survived it thanks to human medicine. He and the Sages have been lying to you all along."

"How can you say something like that?!" exclaimed N.

"It's simple, I'm afraid:" said Diego, emerging from behind N's throne. "She was captured and nearly killed in the battle by the trainers despite my efforts to stop them. They have brainwashed her, like they do to all pokémon, until she truly believed their lies. We should pity her, and try to help her. She truly believes her lies."

"Shut your lying trap!" shouted Boreas furiously as they walked forward. "You know all too well what you did, and so do we!"

N and his pokémon walked forward as well. "As you can see," lied Diego, "poor Boreas has also been brainwashed by our enemies. It's tragic."

"You're right, Diego," said N. "But we can save them, right?"

"Of course," said Diego. "Once you free all pokémon, they will know the truth again."

"I'm sorry, Aqua," said N. "I shouldn't have sent you into battle... But I know you would be proud of me if you hadn't been brainwashed. I have brought freedom to so many pokémon already, and my victory here today will finalise that, and liberate all remaining pokémon."

"N, have you ever looked at your new kingdom?" asked Aqua. "You can believe I'm brainwashed all you like, but the evidence is out there: just look at what Team Plasma has done to Unova! Pokémon should be free, but under Team Plasma they're no more free than under their trainers, but their taskmasters are cruel tyrants instead. Instead of giving pokémon their freedom, Plasma has taken away that of the humans! You're a good person, I know this isn't what you wanted. I've come to realise the true enemy isn't trainers, but the Seven Sages. It's not too late for you to join us; and after we defeat them we can truly liberate pokémon: but not just forcibly remove them from their trainers, but give them the choice whether they want to be wild or befriend a human!"

"That's not true!"

"You've been lied to all your life, N!"

"No," said N. "It's you who has been lied to. But once you're free again, you'll realise I'm right. For now, I don't want to hear any more of this; it's spoiling this moment."

"Well said, N," said Diego. The two sides now stood in the middle of the room, between the bodies of water, only a few metres between them.

"N, she's right," said Black. "But I can see you don't want to hear it. Maybe you will see reason if I beat you."

"You're right!" said N. "It's time to settle this once and for all! My determination is absolute, and I will prove my beliefs. Since you've come this far, I know you are equally determined! Let Reshiram and Zekrom battle to decide whether truth or ideals are more powerful!"

"No," said Black. "Reshiram won't fight, because it hasn't responded to me yet. But that's okay: I only need my pokémon, my friends, to beat you. I'll battle you with them."

N made a face. "How disappointing. I actually kind of liked you a little. Through our many battles I got the feeling you might be a trainer who truly cares for your pokémon, like me. But I was kidding myself."

Black chortled. "So because I choose to trust my own pokémon in battle instead of relying on the power of some legendary I never met before I'm demonstrating I don't care for my pokémon? Your logic is twisted up worse than the Gordian knot."

N ignored him. "You have two options. Challenge me to a fight you can't win or leave this place and let me finish my new world where pokémon are free!"

"Do you _ever_ shut up and listen to someone else?!" snapped Black. "I'm fighting you, and I'll win. Because my pokémon are my friends."

A fierce white light emanated from Black's pocket. Startled, he retrieved the Light Stone from it: it was ablaze with light, shining like the Sun. It levitated out of his hand and grew enormously. As it grew, it slowly changed shape to the form of a dragon. Reshiram roared and the entire tower shook on its foundations. Boreas felt a powerful, fiery conviction they were fighting for the truth fill him with pride. They couldn't lose: the truth never did.

"YOU FIGHT FOR THE TRUTH," thundered Reshiram's voice like a raging inferno. "I AM THE TRUTH. YOU SHALL FIGHT WITH ME, HERO, LIKE WE DID LONG AGO."

All stood in awe, and Black threw a pokéball, making Reshiram disappear into it. It felt oddly undignified to Boreas, capturing a legendary pokémon like it was a Pidgey. Black carefully picked up the pokéball.

"...Maybe I was right about you after all," spoke N. "Reshiram who lends its power to the hero who searches for truth has recognised you. It is finally as it should be. We shall finally battle, but the rules are that you can't have seven pokémon for an official battle like this. So we'll begin once you send one of your pokémon away to bring you back to six."

Black looked at Reshiram's pokéball, trying to decide who to send back to the pokécenter. After a moment, he looked at Octa. Then he looked at Boreas, and Boreas realised what he was going to do. He nodded in agreement, though he wasn't entirely sure it was such a great idea. Black looked at his other pokémon one by one. Finally, he pressed a few buttons on Reshiram's pokéball and it disappeared.

"You... You made a mistake," stammered N. "Reshiram was in that pokéball, you must've meant to send one of your other pokémon away instead."

"No," said Black. "I told you: I don't need Reshiram; I trust my pokémon."

"But-but this isn't how it's supposed to be!" whined N. "Reshiram and Zekrom are supposed to battle! We're like the heroes of legends, you have to get it back!"

"I don't care how it's 'supposed' to be. My pokémon are my friends; if I loved power so much I'd rely on some legendary's power over any of them, I wouldn't deserve them in the first place. I'm sure these legendary pokémon are very powerful, but they're nothing else. Truly skilled trainers should try to win with the pokémon they love best, not with those acclaimed as powerful. I wouldn't be much of a defender of the friendships between humans and pokémon anyway if I forsook my own like that."

N was speechless. Boreas felt proud and happy by his trainer's trust, yet also a little worried about Zekrom.

"If that's the way he wants it," said Diego, "then why should that bother us, N? Zekrom will sweep him before you."

"But..." stammered N. "What if he loses, but would've won if he had used Reshiram... How can I know the truth after this battle?"

"You already know the truth. We are right. You would win this anyway, so battle him!"

"You're right, Diego. It's time to create the future I desire!"

"Boreas," said Black. "I know this will be hard. But you can do this."

Boreas stepped forward, a lot less happy about Black sending Reshiram away now that he stood a good chance of meeting up with a teravolt of electricity soon. "Zek-"

"I've got an idea:" said Diego. "Why don't you save Zekrom for last? Give them a chance to at least save some face by battling the rest of your team before Zekrom obliterates them."

"Good idea. I suppose they've deserved that respect from us."

"You, Klinklang," ordered Diego. "Grind him."

Boreas felt relieved not to have to fight Zekrom, but wondered what Diego's game was. Did he think Boreas stood a chance at beating Zekrom, and therefore want to have him battle other teammembers instead? Or maybe he wanted to beat Boreas himself, but have this Klinklang weaken him first to ensure victory?

Well, if that was his plan, Boreas wasn't going to let it happen. Klinklang rolled towards him rapidly on its largest gear, clearly planning to roll over him. Boreas simply walked onto the water, forming ice under his feet to stand on, then grinned smugly at Diego. His metal foe shot a beam of electricity at him, but he parried it quite easily.

Boreas quickly formed a raging blizzard around his opponent. It could either get into the water to attack him, or allow him to slowly penetrate its metal with his cold. It fired metal spikes at Boreas, but he simply waved his paw and let a powerful gust blow them away. Another beam of electricity was parried by a pulse of cold before the Klinklang realised it could never beat him at a distance and rolled into the water, its metal body covered in a white layer of frost by now.

"Gotcha!" laughed Boreas, freezing the water under him entirely once Klinklang was in. It took a lot of energy, but now the metal creature was frozen in. Boreas could see and hear it still slowly grind its way through the ice, but he just moved away from it. He could afford to wait: he wasn't the one encased in ice.

Boreas smirked at N and Diego. "So now what?" he asked, expecting Diego to battle him personally now.

"Oh no..." muttered N. "I'll have to retreat it..."

"I'm afraid so," said Diego, "looks like they- Archeops, Rock Slide right now!"

Boreas had mere moments before the rain of heavy boulders from the sky struck. He managed to protect his head, but got badly battered, his limbs aching and feeling bruised. And Archeops was already diving for him, its claws and jaws extended. Boreas crawled out from under the rocks and tried to stop his enemy, only to receive a deep slash from its claws that knocked him down. Boreas could barely focus with pain as his opponent turned around for another pass at him.

He lashed out with an Ice Beam and hit Archeops' wing more by luck than skill. Archeops instantly turned, keeping away from him in fear. It kept at a distance cautiously, scared of him. This allowed Boreas to regain his composure, letting him dodge Archeops' next few rock attacks from a distance as he created a snowstorm in the tower. Archeops soon had trouble flying, preventing it from attacking at all while he weakened it with the cold.

Boreas was about to end the fight with an Ice Beam, but Archeops still had some fight in it: it suddenly lunged for him, unconcerned with its own health, and caught him in a wave of boulders. He easily hit it with an Ice Beam, but couldn't dodge the boulders. His hip was hit very hard, so it was hard for him even to stand up again.

Boreas was sure Diego would come battle him personally now that he had been weakened so much, but instead the Zoroark ordered Carracosta to battle him. Boreas had trouble thinking of a reason why Diego would have the turtle fight him, until he had an odd thought: maybe Diego wanted to spare him from fighting Zekrom? Maybe the Zoroark was actually trying to save his life like he had done on Victory Road?

It was a strange idea, because Diego had never before shown any kind of compassion or remorse towards him. Could it be that the time Diego had spent impersonating Zeph - which paradoxically made Boreas both hate him more than ever and feel kinship to him – had affected Diego as well? Was it possible Diego still thought of him as his brother in an odd way?

Boreas was snapped out of his thoughts by a roaring wave rushing towards him with a sturdy turtle riding it. He instinctively extended his front paws and unleashed a powerful blast of cold to freeze it. He managed to do so and prevented the worst of the wave from hitting him, but he felt horribly drained and exhausted by it. Carracosta swum around the frozen wave and formed a powerful whirlpool around Boreas. He made an attempt to freeze the whirlpool too, but found himself on the edge of blacking out with exhaustion at the mere try. He swam weakly against the current, but even after all the time since meeting Aqua, he wasn't much of a swimmer.

He had one final idea and let himself go limp, trusting the air in his lungs to keep him afloat. His enemy should've just used the whirlpool to beat him then, but he was lucky as it made a mistake: it swam for him to use its claws instead.

Boreas suppressed a grin, waited for it to come close, and when it did he put a paw to its face, unleashed a pulse of cold to daze it, climbed onto its back, and froze himself to its wet shell. He nearly blacked out once more from the energy required, but this time he was firmly stuck to his opponent's shell and couldn't fall off. Carracosta clumsily tried to reach him with its sharp claws, but didn't even come close. Then it began wiggling to shake him off without much effect. Boreas had by now recovered enough that he could start sending pulses of cold through its shield into its body to slowly freeze it.

"Just dive!" snapped Diego. "Dive and drown him!"

Boreas took a lungful of air as he was forcibly submerged. Eventually Carracosta would have to resurface, of course, but words he and Aqua had spoken nearly a year ago echoed through Boreas' head: _"I can hold my breath for five hours, you know."_

"_I can hold my breath for five minutes. I hope."_

Since he had far less time than the turtle, Boreas gave it his all, sending pulse after pulse through Carracosta's shield until it finally stopped swimming and just floated limply in the water. Unfortunately Boreas' paws were still frozen to its shield. With no paw free to swim, he tried to stretch his neck far enough to reach the surface, but it was futile. _Brilliant plan, really, freezing myself to a living rock while underwater..._

Fortunately with Carracosta unconscious, the water flowed back into its ponds, eventually leaving Boreas coughing and wheezing on dry land. He finally managed to tear his paws loose.

"Woohoo!" cheered Aqua. "You beat half his team! "

Boreas wanted to say something back, but he could only cough up more water and gasp for air.

"N," said Diego, "remember when I advised you to keep some pokémon with you and train them instead of relying on wild pokémon temporarily joining us?"

"Yeah, I do, but that would make me just as bad as our enemies, enslaving those poor pokémon."

"You've never had trouble with having _me_ with you," muttered Diego.

"Well, you're different."

"Of course I am."

"Enough talk," coughed Boreas, managing to stand on all four legs. "Come fight me!"

Diego threw him a sneer. "Vanilluxe, finish this."

N asked Diego: "Don't you want to-"

"No."

As the Vanilluxe hopped forward it made a rapid snowstorm around the both of them, quickly freezing the puddles that had formed in the throneroom. Boreas chuckled: his opponent's failure to realise this could just as easily be used against it might just be his salvation.

"You think you'll be able to beat me at this just because I'm wounded, battered, and half-drowned," stated Boreas.

Vanilluxe shot a powerful ball of icy energy out of its forehead; Boreas got the snow to fall in such a way it masked his movements; a very handy trick Froslass had taught him. The beam missed him as he dodged it. His opponent fired a few more attacks on the general region, but Boreas had already sneaked away and was now behind it. He pounced the icecream from behind, slamming its head against the ground hard and sending several pulses of cold through it. "Well, you thought wrong!" he laughed.

He was thrown off Vanilluxe by a powerful pulse that nearly blacked him out, but made sure to quickly use his Snow Cloak to hide from Vanilluxe again. Though he was pretty sure he'd hurt it more than it had hurt him there, he was so weak he couldn't afford even a small bit of damage any more. As he dodged his enemy's attacks, he instead counterattacked from a distance, firing Ice Beams and directing the storm against his opponent. It was clear these pokémon were poorly trained: all Vanilluxe would need to do to beat him was let the storm dissipate, robbing Boreas of his cover. Yet it didn't do so, and with its attacks all missing while Boreas could hit it it weakened soon, and Boreas defeated it too.

Boreas felt proud for defeating two-thirds of the enemy team by himself, but knew these were just a warm-up. Diego and Zekrom would be the true challenge. He was too weak to keep the storm going on his own; it quickly dissipated.

"If you want something done properly, you've got to do it yourself!" snarled Diego as he walked towards Boreas, his front paws enveloped in darkness. Boreas wondered if he should kill Diego if he won. In a sense, this was an official League battle, but then again, in a sense it wasn't. He had sworn to kill Diego, yet part of him didn't want to. Of course, it was unlikely he could beat Diego anyway.

"Then why didn't you?" Boreas challenged his nemesis. "Why did you hide behind those four? Are you afraid to face me when I'm not half-dead?"

Diego fired a beam of utter darkness from his paws. Boreas quickly moved his own paw to parry, but it was so powerful he only managed to weaken it. Sharp pain and nausea overwhelmed him as the beam of darkness hit him and he drifted off into darkness.

–

He woke up moments later with severe pain in his neck and squirmed against an iron grip lifting him up by it. "Afraid?" said two malicious purple eyes. "Why would I ever be afraid of _you_?" he tightened his grip, making Boreas gasp for breath. "You are nothing, you are weak! You are no more than an arrogant, pesky flee. I could snap your neck right now and end your pathetic life. I've grown far more powerful since our last meeting."

"Yet," Boreas gasped. "You still – haven't learned – to protect your – vulnerable spots." He gave Diego a kick in the loins as hard as he could. The Zoroark howled in pain and threw him away, and as Boreas landed painfully hard he shot two Ice Beams at Diego; all he could still manage. He dragged himself away to seek cover behind a statue as Diego got up.

"You just don't give up, do you?" He breathed a wave of fire, and Boreas' way was suddenly barred by the searing flames. He winced back from the heat and faced the Zoroark once more.

"Never," he growled as he shot another Ice Beam. A wave of Diego's paw, and darkness swallowed the attack.

A beam of lighting shot out of both Diego's paws. Boreas was exhausted and unable to do anything, except howl in pain as the electricity shocked him. He convulsed as it kept electrocuting him, until it finally ended. Diego approached him and put his foot on his head. Boreas was too far weakened to do anything. _So, this is how it ends..._

Then, for one moment, he had eye contact with Diego. His purple eyes didn't look like those of a merciless killer now, but Boreas almost recognised his brother in them. It was probably just the shocks playing tricks with his eyes, but he thought he saw regret in those eyes.

Diego took his foot off Boreas' head. "He's defeated. Send your next pokémon."

Boreas reached out for Diego's leg and dug his teeth into it. He received a sharp kick in response, finally blacking him out.

–

Boreas regained consciousness. His body ached badly, but it was quickly getting better due to the potion Black had given him. The first thing he saw was unfortunately Black giving another potion to an unconscious, and partially burned, Octa. Boreas was startled Diego was powerful enough to beat his best friend, who was the most powerful member of the team.

Boreas thought about their battle. He was annoyed he'd lost to Diego yet again, but also intrigued. Diego could've killed him, yet he chose not to. It could just be because an execution wouldn't exactly be looked on kindly by the League, but he and N were planning to abolish the League anyway, and there were no cameras here. Boreas thought he'd seen compassion in Diego's eyes, possibly even regret. Maybe he had really been mistaken when he swore to kill Diego. He would certainly never turn his back to the Zoroark or consider him a friend, but giving him the benefit of doubt by no longer planning to kill him seemed reasonable. Because once he killed Diego, there was no longer any way to change his mind.

–

"Good job," said N as Aqua finally defeated Diego. "You have fought very well, and are clearly powerful. But now, you will lose. Zekrom, show them the power of my ideals once and for all!"

Aqua had enjoyed finally fighting Diego again. She had once considered him a friend, and he had tried to kill her. That was unforgivable, just like all he had done to Boreas. He had tried to talk to her during the battle, but she had made it clear she had nothing to say to him by ignoring everything he said and wordlessly fighting him. It felt really good to finally beat him. And now she considered executing the unconscious Zekrom with a wave of boiling water when Zekrom appeared.

The black dragon's appearance filled Aqua with utter fury as old wounds were suddenly reopened. The pain when her grandmother had been killed by humans set her heart ablaze, and Lothario's lifeless body filled her mind. The weight of every single day she had been alone pressed on her mind, and Aqua was furious at the memory of every city she had seen: disgusting, filthy places where nature had been massacred and pokémon captured to make way for the cancer that was humanity. It had been a long time since she's felt like this, known she wouldn't rest until every human being was dead.

Aqua turned around, ablaze with hate, to join Zekrom and kill the horrible bald ape who was so arrogant he thought she was his to command. He was saying something in his annoying human voice, and she spit a powerful ray of water at his face, flooring him. She ran for him, planning to finish it. Other pokémon - misguided slaves of the human - said things she didn't listen to. They would thank her once she'd freed them from the human and tasted its blood.

Suddenly Boreas was in front of her. He had her attention even in her murderous rage. "Aqua!" he said. "My love, think! Remember why you joined us, remember what Plasma did! Black isn't your enemy: Team Plasma is!"

Aqua stopped as she recalled seeing a trainer and her pokémon murdered before her very eyes. It brought her no joy even now. She realised Zekrom's power had turned her against Black; it had twisted her ideals and strengthened them so badly she had switched sides. She quivered with horror at the treason she had almost committed, how easy she had been to turn to the side of evil. None of her friends had done anything like that; they had been strong enough to resist Zekrom, but Aqua hadn't. "Oh- oh no... I-I'm so sorry..."

Boreas firmly kissed her, bringing a moment of happiness to her. "He'll be alright, don't worry. I'm just happy you're well again." Aqua began to protest, to tell him she was far from well, but he looked her in the eyes and said: "I know this is hard, my love, but you can do it."

As she looked into his lovely cyan eyes while he spoke, she was filled with a new certainty that she could do it indeed. "You're right."

That certainty coalesced into a single ice-cold point on her forehead as she turned around again and fired an Ice Beam at the legendary dragon. It probably wasn't nearly as powerful as one of Boreas', but it was enough to make Zekrom roar in pain. Aqua took control of the ponds of water and crushed the black dragon between two powerful waves.

"You'll pay for that! You made me betray my friends!"she shouted furiously as she tried to drown Zekrom in a whirlpool.

A terrific shock made her convulse in agony, set her fur on edge and made the water on her skin boil. "THAT IS IDEAL."

"No, it bloody isn't!" she shouted as she fired Ice Beams at its head while making the water it was submerged in boil.

Zekrom struggled to escape and shocked her again. "IMPERFECT."

Aqua's body was smoking from the electrocutions by now, yet she kept attacking. "Yeah, I am! If I've shown any trait in my life well, it's imperfection!"

Zekrom's head emerged from the water, and Aqua aimed another Ice Beam for it, hurting Zekrom again. The terrible shock she received in return made her jump, every muscle in her body cramp, her fur stand up in spikes, smoking, and brought her near unconsciousness. Her legs twitching, she lay on the ground powerless as the water flowed away from Zekrom. Her eyes showed random and painful flashes of colour and she struggled against the heavy sleepiness that tried to pull her under.

"IT IS DEFEATED," stated Zekrom.

With her last strength, Aqua managed one last Ice Beam to her legendary opponent. "Sink into the depths," she spat defiantly before one last sharp pain turned everything black.

–

"Stop fooling yourself, pup! She finally showed her true colours!" snapped Lucius.

"Are you mad?!" argued Boreas. "Didn't you see how she fought to the end?"

"After she attacked Black! We all felt Zekrom's power, but none of us did that!"

"So she's-" Boreas began.

"Gentlemen!" interrupted Octa. "Cease your arguing, this doesn't help! Lucius, Black ordered you to fight, now go and do so!"

"Fine," grumbled Lucius. "I'll deal with the traitorous bitch later."

Boreas ignored Lucius as he began to fight Zekrom, focussing instead on helping Black – who fortunately wasn't hurt too much by Aqua's attack - nurse his unconscious girlfriend to health. "I do not like to agree with Lucius," said Octa softly, "but you have to concede he has a good point. None of us even came close to attacking Black, yet she did..."

Boreas forced himself to remain calm. "She was just overwhelmed by Zekrom's power, that's all... When I looked into her eyes, I saw only mad anger, nothing deliberate."

"My dear fellow, the extent of her anger shows it wasn't created solely by Zekrom. She clearly harboured ill feelings towards Black anyway; a clear indication she is his, and therefore our, enemy."

"Look, it's just some repressed feelings against all humanity for what they did to her."

"And what is that?" asked Octa.

Boreas remembered when Aqua had broken down in his embrace long ago in her burrow by the river and told him all about the human hunters who had killed her previous boyfriend. He was also certain she wouldn't want him to tell that to Octa; he was likely the only person that knew about it. "I can't tell you."

"Well, then it can't be of much importance."

"Leave it, Octa," said Toxica. "She's got a good reason to be angry, but you can trust her."

Octa sniffed. "Were that I could believe you." However, he turned his attention to the battle.

"Thanks," said Boreas.

Toxica nodded. "She told me a bit about her past. Not much, but enough to guess more. I hate to see those two bein' such tossbags to her... Oh, bugger." Lucius had been enveloped by a huge spherical ball of lightning after only getting off a few bites into his enemy. "I guess it's my turn, innit?"

"Good luck..." mumbled Aqua.

Boreas pet her face a little. "How are you feeling, love?"

"Like I've just committed treason and was then electrocuted..."

"It wasn't your fault, my love. It was Zekrom's power. It took your anger and gave you no choice-"

"But I did have a choice! I could've resisted it, but it seems betraying is just what I do... I shouldn't have joined your team, I'll only end up letting you down and hurting you..."

"No, Aqua," said Boreas, his face closer to her, "you won't. You're far braver and more loyal than you think."

Aqua gave him a disbelieving little smile.

"No, really, just wait and see. When it comes down to it, you're a far better person than you think. You fought Zekrom to the end. I believe in you, and so does Toxica."

Aqua averted her gaze and got up, looking at the battle. "Toxica seems to be doing well..."

Boreas nodded, allowing her to change the subject. Toxica was indeed doing well. She had been shocked several times, yet was still fighting, her plant tissues making her more resistant to electrocution. Zekrom was poisoned by a large cloud of toxic powder, getting weaker by the second. Massive bolts of electricity and energy were exchanged between Zekrom and Toxica. Though Toxica was more resistant to electricity than most, the shocks were powerful enough to weaken her quickly. She fired Solarbeam after Solarbeam at her poisoned opponent, but it just kept on shocking her, demonstrating its incredible power. Eventually Toxica stopped getting up after a shock, defeated.

"It's up to you, Selene." commanded Black, biting his nails nervously.

Boreas groaned. With Selene's type disadvantage, it was unlikely she could withstand even a single attack. Fortunately she flew right for Zekrom quickly, swooping around it so fast its first attacks missed. It tried to hit her as she spun rapidly around it, raining lightning bolts around randomly. Then Selene flew close to its tail, and it almost seemed like a powerful lightning bolt would fry her, but she made a sudden turn and with dark energy slightly bent the bolt's trail so it hit Zekrom's own tail.

Zekrom roared in anger and tried to physically punch Selene out of the air, but her movement was so quick it looked like she teleported away and Zekrom tripped clumsily. It got up, clearly weakened by the poison inside it, and spat thunderbolt after thunderbolt after Selene, who was moving quicker than Boreas had ever seen her do, seeming to be in multiple places at once, and never the same as Zekrom's attacks. Zekrom turned around and around to try and get her, but she was too swift, and Zekrom got clumsier each time, frequently hurting itself while the poison took its toll.

At last, Zekrom's tail flickered and it staggered weakly. "IMPERFECT."

"Tell me about it," said Selene before swooping down and slashing at Zekrom with wing and claw. Slowly the legendary creature toppled and fell with a titanic thud.

The flapping of Selene's wings as she landed in front of her team was the only sound in the tower. She looked at them for a moment before she was rushed by Toxica, picked up, and held in her arms. "You did it! You did it! You beat that thing, I can't believe it!"

Lucius laughed. "That thing was stupid enough to be beaten by you, huh, birdbrain? Whatever, you did really well."

They were all congratulating Selene for a while and only after that was over realised N had been standing still and wordless like a statue. Silence fell until at last he spoke:

"Everything's ruined..." he said in an empty voice. "The dreams I had... My ideals... They were false after all..."

"No, N!" interrupted Diego, recovered from his wounds in battle. "You can't say that, you know it's not true!"

"But it is!" said N desperately. "They defeated Zekrom, even without using Reshiram..."

"Well, that doesn't mean we're wrong, it just shows they're stronger!"

"...But you've always told me the winner of this battle was right. I was wrong, that's all there is to it... I guess it was wrong to liberate the pokémon..."

"You can't reject Team Plasma!"

"But we're wrong, this battle clearly shows it... Black, you won. That means you were right and I was wrong... Pokémon should belong to humans, I suppose..."

Black sighed. "N, have you ever considered we could _both_ be right?"

N looked at Black like he'd asked him kindly to saw his legs off. "Of course not, that's preposterous."

"The world is a place with many colours; you should embrace its diversity, not paint it black and white. You were right that many humans treat pokémon as their property, or worse; and that's a bad thing. But forcibly liberating all pokémon to separate them entirely from humans is bad too."

N thought for a long time. "Well... Maybe... when I grew up, I only met pokémon that didn't like humans... But when I began my journey, I began meeting pokémon that liked humans, including yours. I couldn't understand it, even if Diego tried to help me understand it as he told me they were brainwashed... But now I see: you, my friend, were just as mistaken as I was! Some pokémon really do like humans, and so we should allow them to choose whether they want to be with humans or not instead of liberating them all. Thank you, Black."

"You're welcome."

"Well," said N. "We'll need to change things. I may no longer be Champion, but I am still Team Plasma's king. And I see now that it's time for peace. This war was terribly misguided, and the remaining trainers should be allowed to keep their pokémon, and others too; though we should make sure pokémon never again suffer at human hands. And we'll begin making peace right here. Diego."

"Yes?!" Diego startled, having looked lost in thought during N's speech.

"This enmity between you and Boreas ends now. We're all friends now, so I want you to shake his paw and forgive him."

"Good idea," said Black. "Boreas, I know he's hurt you in the past, but you have to forgive and forget now. Shake his paw."

"But-" started Boreas.

"There's no way-" began Diego.

"I can't possibly-"

"Are you insane?"

"He tried to kill Aqua!"

"I'm not shaking his paw!"

"I won't forgive!"

"You can't make us-"

"Please, Diego!" pleaded N. "It's over now. Do it for the peace we'll build."

"Come on, Boreas," said Black. "N and I made up, now you have to do the same. This is our chance to end this war."

Boreas and Diego stared into each other's face. Boreas still hated him. He was no longer planning to kill the Zoroark, but he had no intention to forgive either. "Fine!" snapped Diego, taking steps forward, his paw extended.

Now Boreas didn't feel he could refuse; that would make him be less forgiving than Diego. "Hmpf, alright then." He placed his paw into Diego's. Diego squeezed far harder than he needed to and Boreas chilled Diego's paw down very rapidly, but they shook paws grudgingly before rapidly retracting them, trying not to wince in pain from what the other had done.

"Excellent!" laughed N. "Aqua, my friend, looks like you were right after all. I'm sorry for doubting you."

"That's alright," smiled Aqua. "I guess you've finally come to your senses now."

"Well," said N happily. "Why don't you go get Reshiram, and then we'll address Unova together, as Team Plasma's king and the Champion, and tell everyone it's time to stop hunting pokémon trainers. It's time we made peace."

"No, it isn't."

From each of the rear entrances to the throne room came one of the seven Sages, their entire teams with them, each with a single, mighty addition. Rood's fire-types were joined by a Salamence, ferocious and powerful. Gorm's water-types had been joined by a kinder-looking, but no less powerful, Dragonite. Bronius now had a Tyranitar, mightiest of all rock-types, and Giallo a cold, robotic Metagross added to his steel-types. Among Ryoku's grass-type ranks was a mighty, shark-like Garchomp, and Zinzolin's poison-types had a Hydreigon with them.

Ghetsis was the only one of them whose addition Boreas didn't recognised as a pokémon of almost legendary power. It was a strange, grey and blue creature with a vaguely draconic head; it seemed to be hunched over. It seemed a weird, almost pitiable thing, yet it frightened Boreas. Somehow it reminded Boreas of Reshiram and Zekrom, even though it seemed more like the antithesis of the powerful pokémon.

Boreas could've sworn he saw Diego flinch, looking almost pained for a moment, as the Sages entered, almost surrounding them.

–

AUTHOR'S NOTES: I wonder if anyone really believed my implications lately that this would be the final chapter. It is not. This story doesn't have ten, but eleven parts; but the quest is truly over as Black has become the new Champion. The final part will be a completely original one, having no basis at all in the games, and will start the very next chapter.

I was originally going to end the story like in the games, with a battle against N and then against Ghetsis. But as I diverged more and more from the games' story, I realised somewhere around chapter 40 I needed a different ending; one more climactic and bigger that would truly end the story. And that is what part eleven will do.

But that is the future. Let's talk about this chapter first. First of all, I didn't have them fight to capture Reshiram because I felt it would be a relatively pointless diversion from the chapter's main battle and because it's odd that they'd have to fight a pokémon that wanted to join them anyway.

As for Black sending Reshiram away, you probably saw that one coming. I doubt many people actually switched one of their pokémon for some legendary they'd just caught at that point in the game; unless it was just an HM slave, I guess. So of course, Black didn't swap one of his pokémon out either.

N sent out Zekrom last instead of first like in the game because it's more climactic that way. After Zekrom, the other pokémon, even Diego, would have seemed boring and unimpressive. So instead, the four random hangers-on went first, then came Diego (the Zoroark in N's final battle is of course what I based the idea of N having a Zoroark as his main pokémon on), and finally Zekrom. The moves Selene was using at the end to defeat it were incidentally Swagger and Double Team; a truly mean combination, especially considering Toxica had poisoned it.

It's also the end of 2012. Not a particularly productive year, considering I only did 25 chapters to the 45 I did in eight months of 2011, but then they were harder chapters to write for a large part. At least I can promise I will definitely finish this story in 2013; probably early in the year.

Well, look out for the final part of the story soon. I want to thank everyone who's read this far.

FEEDBACK: TheGlaceonFanatic: Q: The other scenes were interesting too with a lot of descriptions! I've also noticed you said the battle itself isn't going to start next chapter... Maybe he Light Stone is finally going to do something?

A: Well, it did something, but the battle did start this chapter. I meant to say it would happen this chapter in last chapter's notes. As for what happens in chapter seventy-one, you'll see that next chapter.

Duststar1: I don't like Lucius that much but I can't complain about him. I act a lot like him sometimes. I am ashamed to even see me in Lucius and I want to give him a good pop on the head for being such a jerk (to put it nicely).

A: Lucius is quite a bit of a jerk, true, but you'll find he;s got his good sides too in future chapters. Though not too many.

Q: still love this story though. I'm eager to see whats going to happen next! I wonder what kind of personality this Toxica has...

A: Well, since you're in chapter 19, it'll take me a while to give her anything beyond a very one-dimensional personality. About twenty chapters, I think; Toxica was by far the worst character of the fic for a long time, being little more than a walking crush on Octa until I started fleshing her out far too late. But right now, I like her quite a bit.


	71. The Seven Sages

Part Eleven: The Point of no Return

Chapter Seventy-One: The Seven Sages

Diego suppressed a wince as the Sages entered the throneroom. He really had hoped it wouldn't come to this. After what N had just said, he knew he would have to do his duty to protect Team Plasma from its most powerful tool. His first task had always been to shape N into the person Team Plasma needed. So Diego had taught N how horrible humans were and how good pokémon. He had spun tales of N's 'heroic destiny' and even told the boy the ludicrous story that he was a pokémon born in human form. He had taught N all the 'heroic' values that had made him into the naïve idiot he was.

And now that naivete had turned him against Team Plasma. Diego knew his duty. He was with N in the first place to make sure he succeeded and to keep him on the right path. But if he would turn from that path after all, as he just had, Diego had to kill him immediately. The boy was far too dangerous to be left alive with Zekrom at his command. If N announced publicly he'd changed his mind, that would be a serious threat. It would probably split Team Plasma in two, and would encourage a lot of others to fight Plasma as well. Diego should've eliminated N the moment he made his change of heart clear.

But he hadn't. He had come to care a lot for N, and had told himself he would somehow fix it, that he would be able to talk N back into the plan. But now, that was clearly impossible.

"Ghetsis," said N happily, "I've got some great news: the war is over! Black has defeated Zekrom and taught me we were both right in a way. I was just about to come tell you."

Diego felt like laughing at the idiotic naivete of his pupil, but was almost frozen with worry for him. Black showed himself far smarter as his pokémon formed a defensive half circle around him and they slowly stepped back between the lakes. "N!" said Aqua. "Come here, they'll kill you!"

N laughed. "Don't be silly, Aqua, they're not-"

"Shut up, you good-for-nothing boy!" snapped Ghetsis. N looked as if he'd been slapped in the face. "That decision isn't yours to make. The war continues until Team Plasma rules all!"

"But..." stammered N. "B-but I'm your king!"

The Sages laughed, even Ghetsis. "King?" he grinned. "I'm sorry, your majesty, but a vote held among the Seven Sages elected me Emperor several years ago. And last time I checked, emperors outrank kings."

Diego tried to remind himself of Ghetsis' long friendship. Ghetsis had entrusted this task to him, and him alone. Following Ghetsis would lead to more power than he could imagine. N, meanwhile, was no more than a tool he had crafted himself. A defective tool that had to be thrown away.

N seemed unable to process the fact that he was no more than a figurehead. Yet he asked: "W-where did those pokémon come from?" he asked, pointing at the powerful pokémon the Sages now owned.

"From this very castle," explained Giallo, looking a bit like a talking orange between his fatness and his yellow robes. "You have-a lived here for most-a your life, but you've seen little of eet. Since we no longer needed the pokémon who've built this castle, they made-a excellent training fodder so we could obtain the most-a powerful pokémon on the planet. I've always wanted to own a Metagross."

N was clearly stupefied by the revelations. Diego felt a sudden spark of hate for his friend, using pokémon like that. He focussed to try and quench it, what concern of his were those pokémon after all? But it was hard to ignore. Ever since he had pretended to be Boreas' bloody brother, something of Zeph's had stuck inside Diego's mind. It had weakened him and made him think treacherous thoughts. "Typical Plasma hypocrisy," said Black. "So this is where those pokémon you 'liberated' went? Slave labour?! I didn't expect something that evil even from you!"

"Evil," spoke the creepily-thin Ryoku, "is just a word people use to plotect themselves from the strong. Those with power barely get to use it, because it would be 'evil' to do so. We live in a world where the mighty are allowed little in order to spare the weak. Yet the weak could have been mighty if only they'd had the ambition to grab power."

"Indeed," Ghetsis nodded. "This is why we came together and began Team Plasma in secret all those years ago. To allow all to unleash their full potential. Powerful pokémon and humans should be allowed to exercise that power, not live for the weak!"

"But..." stammered N. "But..." Ghetsis' talk about their ideals should've restored Diego's confidence... But it didn't. It only made him wonder if they weren't really just simply evil. There was something to be said for a world where all were equal. What if he said he agreed with N? He knew Ghetsis might actually listen to him, but would he abandon his plans? It seemed unlikely, especially as the other Sages wouldn't listen. Shocked at these treasonous thoughts, he tried to stamp them out.

"And this," continued Ghetsis, "is where you come in. Even with the seven of us, there was little we could do to change the world to be as we wished. We tried to capture Reshiram and Zekrom, but they responded to none of us. We were simply too unlike the ancient heroes who had created them out of Kyurem for them to consider us their masters. We needed a hero. We considered looking for one, but then realised we could make one. I conceived a son, and we had him grow up inside our secret hideout, under fully controlled conditions, getting taught to be exactly as we needed him to be. That would be you."

"B-but..." stammered N. "But you found me! My parents were pokémon, I am a pokémon in human form!"

"No," spoke Ghetsis. "I am your father."

"No!" cried N. "That's not true! That's impossible!"

"Of course it's true. A pokémon in human form, did you actually believe that? Diego did his job well. Until now, you've done the task I created you for admirably, and the nineteen years it took for you to grow up have been spent well anyway. We built this castle, the pokémon we have now, and we made a powerful Team Plasma with people everywhere to quickly grab power once you had Zekrom."

"So what's that frozen chicken supposed to be?" sneered Black.

"It's Kyurem," explained Ghetsis. "Or rather, what's left of it after the ancient heroes took Reshiram and Zekrom from it, leaving only traits neither of them desired. While you two were on Victory Road, I led an expedition to the Giant Chasm to capture it. The terrain was our main obstacle, really; Kyurem's remnants are weak, its strength all in Zekrom and Reshiram. It accepted me as its master quite easily."

"So why did you want it, then, if it was so weak?"

Ghetsis grinned chillingly. "You will see soon..."

Diego wondered what would happen if he refused to kill N, fought for his life, even. Black and his pokémon would likely join them. The four wild hangers-on N had picked up on Victory Road wouldn't do much, and would probably just flee, but Zekrom would definitely be able to take on several enemies. Diego saw it was slowly recovering, no longer unconscious and getting up as everyone had their attention on each other. But even Zekrom would never bring them victory. The Seven Sages were unbeatable together.

And it was a good thing they were, Diego reminded himself forcefully. He would join them in destroying their enemies after he had killed N. Zeph was turning him insane, shifting his loyalties.

"Diego..." said N at last. "He-he's not my father, is he? I'm a pokémon, right?"

Diego felt almost in pain with pity. "I'm sorry, N. He is."

"But you told me I am a pokémon... Just to make me hate humans?!"

Diego had never felt so horrible in his life. "I told you what I had to to make you into a hero who would want to liberate pokémon. And I succeeded in it. You have become a great and noble hero, my friend."

"Friend?!" snapped N. "You've lied to me all my life! You taught me only humans lie, but it's obvious you're the greatest liar of them all!"

"Listen to me, N, it was for a good cause!"

"What cause? Clearly not pokémon liberation!"

Diego decided he at least owed N the truth after all these years. Ghetsis had told him most of it anyway. "Pokémon liberation is part of it, but not in the way you thought. Pokémon will be truly equal to humans in our new world. But not all pokémon will be equal to each other, and not all humans will either. The world is a dangerous place, N. All the things I taught you about the cruelty of humans were true. Every living being is basically selfish, that's just how we evolved. You can call that evil, but it's simply how the world works. To deny that is dangerous, as it's denying reality. And it's not such a bad thing either: if everyone takes care of themselves, they all have someone who will always look out for them. But only if you let them. You can't force people to take care of others, that way you inhibit them, restrict their freedom. Everyone should have the freedom to use their power as they wish. This is Team Plasma's true goal, and it's even better than just pokémon liberation. Because everyone can be powerful, but most just don't take their chance, because they have no ambition.

In the past few months, as Team Plasma has taken over, a better order has begun to be put in place to replace the old chaos. You said before that trainers who really want their pokémon should still be allowed to keep them, and they can do so in our new world: by joining Team Plasma." Diego was beginning to get a dry mouth from talking so much, and in his mind Zeph protested against the principles he'd just laid out. "N, you are a powerful man. You are a good king of Team Plasma, so why don't you remain our king? Now you know what we truly fight for, and as a powerful person our new order will benefit you greatly."

N was silent, and Diego addressed Black and his pokémon. "I make you the same offer. We won't allow you to stand in our way, but you would be valuable allies."

"Never," said Black, and most of his pokémon agreed soon. Even the Houndoom said:

"As long as that bastard in the green bathrobe is still alive, I'll never stop fighting y'all."

"You can't really believe that..." said N, his eyes filled with betrayal. "You told me we would liberate all pokémon..."

"You explained Team Plasma very well, my friend," said Ghetsis. "But I'm afraid you wasted your breath. N is a freak without a human heart, and these have been our enemies for too long. It's time to deal with them, right now."

The Sages, and their entire teams turned towards Black, who was still between the small lakes, but Zekrom and N were suddenly in their way. "Leave him alone!" said N. "Enough people have died because of you. One more step, and Zekrom will fight you!"

Diego winced, knowing what Ghetsis' order would be. _Please, N, no..._

Ghetsis laughed. "You are nothing more than a tool, and now it's time to get rid of you. Diego, you know your orders."

Diego was in agonising doubt. N was his friend, but so was Ghetsis. He couldn't kill N, and he couldn't betray Ghetsis. He truly believed in the ideals he had just laid out, yet Zeph protested against him. He took a few steps so he stood behind N, though he didn't know what he would do there yet. He had to kill the human, but Zeph wanted him to stand with him instead.

Diego fought to keep the unwelcome sympathy and pity away, to kill N, but they were very strong. He remembered the happy time when he had been Zeph, day in day out, seeing the world through very different eyes as he pretended to be Boreas' brother. The reason he had been so good as a mole was that he had truly become Zeph in his mind. Only now, Zeph had stuck around for far longer than he had been needed. And now, Diego had decided. He couldn't kill N, no matter what. If that meant betraying Team Plasma, then so be it.

But then another memory came to him: he was back on Victory Road, as troubled by Zeph as he was now...

–

_Past_

As Diego looked at the huge icy precipice ahead, he saw a familiar-looking blue fox at its top. The Glaceon only reminded him more of his failure to kill Boreas and Aqua in Opelucid Gym. Some days it seemed as if Zeph was taking him over, which was preposterous because he'd been dead for two years. But the personality Diego had taken on while spying on Black had been all too real, and he might as well continue to call it Zeph.

He clenched his fists in annoyance at himself. He wished he had Boreas here so he could right his wrongs immediately. If only that Glaceon still looking at them from the top of the precipice was Boreas...

A grin suddenly spread over Diego's face. He could set his priorities straight here once and for all; test what he was really made of and whether Zeph was stronger than him. He waited a few minutes until they were at the base of the precipice, then said: "Hold on, I think there may be a path up there."

N stopped. "What, up on the precipice? Shouldn't we stick to the main pass?"

"Well, the path up there looked as if it was going straight in the League's direction. It could save us a lot of time. But I'll go check it to be sure; I wouldn't want to have us all climb up there only to have to climb back down again."

"Shouldn't I just send Zekrom to fly up instead?"

"No, you know how it spooks the wild pokémon; I wouldn't want to terrify them. Besides, I'm feeling like a bit of a climb. I'll be back soon."

With that, he began climbing the icy precipice. The stone and ice it was made of was freezing cold and hurt his paws, but he kept climbing. Zeph tried to stop him from what he was about to do, made him feel horrible for even considering it, but he climbed on. At last, he reached the top of the precipice and pulled himself up. The Glaceon was no longer here, but Diego could see its tracks in the snow. He quietly followed them, and soon caught up to it. It didn't hear his approach, and screamed when he suddenly pounced and grabbed it.

Zeph protested and the Glaceon struggled, so Diego punched the Glaceon in the face. It was as if he had punched out Zeph at the same time in his mind as well, as he was finally quiet. Diego grinned and roughed up the semi-conscious Glaceon's hair to make him look more like Boreas.

"P-please... Let me go..." it mumbled through bleeding lips.

Diego instead kicked him in the stomach. "So, Boreas, we meet again. And this time, I'm going to do what I should've done!"

The Glaceon moaned in pain. "I-I'm not this Boreas! Please, let me-"

Diego grabbed Boreas' right front paw with both paws and broke it, making the Glaceon scream in pain.

–

Diego grinned in satisfaction as he stood on top of the precipice again. Zeph was quiet at last, and better yet, Diego had finally proved to himself what he was truly made of by killing the Glaceon in cold blood. When the Glaceon had begged him for death after its lengthy torment and he had finally ended it by disembowelling it crudely with a sharp stone, he had truly forgotten it wasn't really Boreas. He carefully went over the precipice's edge and began climbing down.

Diego climbed back down with a mind that was finally clear of concern. Climbing over the freezing cold precipice was almost as tough to do downwards as upwards, but at least this time it was just physically heavy; he could handle that. After weeks of being troubled by his error in the Opelucid Gym, he could now finally relax. He knew it wouldn't be repeated. While he couldn't deny he felt rudimentary feelings of friendship towards N, and even Boreas, they wouldn't interfere with his service to his true friend, Ghetsis. He was sure of that now.

Friendship was a beautiful thing, Diego reflected. In fact, it was the very concrete Team Plasma was built with, but it was a massive weakness when felt towards an enemy. But now that he was finally sure he wouldn't submit to that weakness again, he could rest easily.

His muscles ached by the time he neared the ground; it was a relief to land on it safely. "Diego!" N called happily. "I was getting worried about you, what took you so long?"

Diego smiled. "I saw a path up there, just as I suspected. But I had to make sure it wasn't a dead end, and walked it for a bit, and a good thing I did, because if I hadn't done that, we'd be climbing up this precipice right now to walk the path... Only to find out after an hour it suddenly ends into a steep depth."

"Oh," N looked disappointed, "I guess we can't cut time off our journey that way, then?"

"No, I'm afraid not, we'll have to follow the normal pass. But I did see some... Inspiring views up there, and they gave me the strength to carry on."

N laughed. "Glad to hear it."

_No_, thought Diego as he smiled along friendlily, _you wouldn't be if you had any idea of the truth._

–

_Present_

Diego felt strengthened by the memory as Zeph shrunk away in horror. He knew who he truly was and what he had to do. He grabbed N's head with both front paws, and in his mind he did the same to Zeph. He had one final spark of pity, then twisted the head with all his strength. A muted crack ended the lives of N and Zeph, and he never saw either of them again.

–

"Diego!" roared Aqua. "Murderer! Traito-"

Zekrom roared too as electricity arced over its body and darkness seemed to ooze out of it. Boreas jumped in shock as a huge lightning bolt shot towards him, but it bent off its path and hit Kyurem instead. More lightning bolts followed, but they all bent off their trajectory and hit Kyurem. Meanwhile Zekrom curled up into a large, floating ball of blackness covered in constant trails of electricity.

Then it exploded in a blindingly bright blast that rocked the castle on its foundations and should have destroyed the tower and killed everyone in it. But like the lightning bolts, the explosive release of energy entirely bent off and all of it hit Kyurem instead, wrapping it in a nova of light. When the light settled, a new pokémon had formed. Or perhaps it wasn't a new pokémon, but some kind of fusion of Kyurem and Zekrom: it shared many of the traits of either. Its rear legs and head looked like Kyurem's, but it was standing upright like Zekrom and dark-furred for a large part. Its tail turbine was thinner than Zekrom's and partially covered in grey scales. Its wings and front paws were muscular and covered in black scales on one side, and icy parts on the other side.

Black and his pokémon realised this bizarre turn of events provided the distraction they needed to run for their lives and bolted out the throneroom into the ferocious tempest outside, running down over the wall there as fast as they could. Boreas' mind burnt with questions about what had just happened, while his heart burnt with anger and betrayal. He had honestly thought Diego wasn't as bad as he'd thought, that the Zoroark might have compassion or the capability of friendship inside him. He had shaken his paw, more or less forgiving him even. Yet Diego had proved his heart to be blacker than Boreas had ever thought it could be by murdering N.

"I'll kill you for this, Diego," he muttered between clenched teeth as they ran past N's childhood room. "I swear I will."

"You'll have to get in line," said Aqua. Boreas noticed there were tears on her face. "N was my friend, dammit! And he was a good man, despite everything! Diego will pay..."

Boreas wanted to comfort Aqua, but a beam of intense energy shot right between them; a kind of beam Boreas remembered all too well, as it had cost him his kindest friend and the tip of his tail last time he saw it. He sprinted faster as he heard their enemies in hot pursuit behind them. He jumped around the corner, over a beam of some kind and down a staircase. They all ran down as fast as they could without falling from the stairs: Lucius even jumped and held on to Selene as she flew down.

Bronius' rock-types launched an avalanche of deadly boulders while Boreas and his friends were only halfway down the long stairs, so they risked running even faster.

Boreas' feet missed a step and landed awkwardly on the next, making him tumble and land on his back on the stairs. He scrambled on to escape the crushing wave of rock, but heard its roaring sound had almost reached him, and for a moment he was sure he would be caught in it. But the sound stopped as plants had grown from the stairs, curled around the boulders in mid-fall, and held them tightly now. Octa and Toxica were both standing still at the bottom of the stairs, faces clenched in focus.

Boreas got up and jumped the remaining steps, thanking Octa and Toxica as they joined him in running away from their enemies, who had come closer in the seconds that had passed. Boreas randomly threw an Ice Beam or two behind them as he heard their enemies round the corner. He heard a yelp of pain, but found he could run faster if he focussed solely on sprinting.

There was a lot of cover in this part of the Castle, allowing them to dodge the attacks made by their pursuers. They emerged outside again, sprinting down a descending wall and a courtyard through the storm, which allowed Boreas to use the winds to their advantage and their enemies' disadvantage, giving them some extra metres between them; though it wasn't much since Boreas' friends weren't nearly as proficient as him in making their way through the stormy winds.

Running through a long corridor, Boreas heard a terrifying sound: flame coming towards them. He instantly turned and extended each front paw for as mighty a pulse of cold as he could, but the blazing inferno still washed over him, only singing him and starting a fire on his shoulder instead of simply incinerating him. Yet he ran: he had no time to extinguish his shoulder right now and had to bite through the pain until Aqua extinguished it in passing.

They rushed through halls and corridors and sometimes the outside parts of the Castle back to the exit. They could only hope the Sages wouldn't pursue them in the League.

At last they entered the open-air courtyard where they'd first entered the Castle, emerging from the northern exit. The entrance to the bridge to the Champion's tower was just ahead in the south, but pokémon were there. They skidded to a halt, prepared for a fight, and breathed a sigh of relief when they saw they were the Elite Four's teams.

"Caitlin!" panted Black happily. "Marshal, Shauntal, Grimsley, am I glad to see you! With the five of us, we stand a chance against the Sages!"

The Elite Four didn't move to join Black, and Boreas closed his eyes in annoyance, hoping he was wrong in his suspicion. "Guys?" said Black.

"I'm sorry, Black," said Caitlin. "But we're not here to offer you aid, but them."

"What?!" snapped Black.

"Is that so hard to believe?" asked Ghetsis, behind them. The Seven Sages stood in the north entrance to the courtyard, which was wide enough to accommodate them all. There were two more entrances to the east and west, but with enemies before and behind them running for either of those would just get them caught. "Team Plasma's true goal is a noble one, whether you think so or not."

"They respect power," thundered Marshal, "and are more powerful even than you. You are a worthy opponent, and I wish this battle would be more even."

"How can you do this?!" snapped Black. "You were all about doing your duty to protect the Champion earlier, and now that I'm the Champion you'll just betray all trainers?!"

"I've been a psychic all my life," explained Caitlin, "so of course I've always been made to suppress my powers. Don't enter the minds of mundanes without their permission, don't even pick up any thought at all; always suppress your talent. But the Sages understand that because I have my power, I should get to use it. Suppressing my powers to protect others is wasting them."

"Besides," laughed Grimsley, "it's much more fun this way. Why stick with the losers?"

"And now," said Ghetsis, "it's time to end your rule, Champion, and let everyone know how you killed poor N in cold blood. Yet another tragic victim of selfish trainers."

They were surrounded by enemies. There was no way out, and no way to defeat them all. Black looked at his pokémon. "So this is how you want to do this?" he asked angrily. "Two of you for each of my pokémon?" Boreas and his friends formed a circle around Black, ready to fight. "Bring it on."

Ghetsis laughed malevolently. "Kill them."

"Can ya manage that?"

All were surprised by the heavily accented voice, and the Elite Four turned around to see a human who looked like an ageing cowboy and six powerful ground-types emerge from the castle's gate behind them. Ryoku was the first to regain his composure. "Gym Leader Clay," he said with a mocking bow that made his beard hang in a puddle of rain, "how nice of you to join us. Are you here to finarry join the winning side, or merely to die in a vain gesture of heroics?"

Clay pretended to think about it. "Well, Ah suppose it's the second. Except..."

At that moment, dozens of attacks hit the sages and their pokémon from the sides as a flood of pokémon of all types charged through the eastern and western gates of the courtyard, while more teams joined Clay too at the southern gate. "It ain't just me, Ah brought the entire resistance along for ye!"

All the Gym Leaders they had fought on their journey had joined the battle, but there were others too: Alder, Cheren, Bianca, and a number of trainers Boreas didn't know. He focussed on his enemies and began to shoot Ice Beams at Ryoku's Cradily, planning to at least get vengeance for Capella.

The chaos that erupted in the courtyard was far worse than the storm itself, but there was a clear tactical element to it. The Elite Four were the first to realise they were in a very poor position, stuck between two enemies, and therefore tried to make their way around and through Black's team so Boreas was forced to fight them instead. He dodged a Conkeldurr's thrown pillar, attacked a Bisharp, and was briefly locked into an icy mirror match against Froslass again.

The Sages were in trouble as well, outflanked in the middle of the courtyard. So it wasn't long until Ghetsis shouted: "RETREAT! Get out of the courtyard, regroup, and summon the grunts! We'll exterminate these pests right now!"

The Sages extended the same orders to their pokémon and slowly the enemy retreated, despite the resistance's attempts to keep them engaged. Soon all eleven teams fought in the northern entrance to the courtyard, a blinding crossfire of attacks flying to and fro. Many of these attacks hit the arching structure itself until after a moment it began to collapse right on top of the enemy. Between the darkness, the storm, and the dust created by the collapse, Boreas couldn't see if any enemies were crushed, but it sounded like a lot of them managed to retreat back into the corridors of the castle.

For now, there was no more enemy to fight, however. "Good work!" shouted Alder over the storm. "Now let's get out of here; it won't be long until they get back here through another way, and this time we won't be able to surprise them! We'll have to leave the League entirely; they won't rest until they get us now." He then turned to Black. "Are you alright? We were expecting something like this."

Boreas began to protest they couldn't run away, but Black quickly told Alder the rough details of all that had happened as they began evacuating everyone over the bridges. Finally, he asked: "D'you have any idea what Kyurem turned into?"

"I think I do," interrupted Iris, who had listened to the story. "Zekrom was once a part of Kyurem, and was only pulled away from it by the ancient hero. It's still only a part of a creature and can't exist without a hero to bond with; that's why all its energy was released in that explosion when N died. But because it was once a part of Kyurem, Kyurem somehow absorbed the energy of the explosion and added Zekrom to itself once again. It's still not complete without Reshiram, but closer to what it once was than it's been in a long time."

"What would happen to Kyurem," Boreas asked, an idea forming in his mind, "if Ghetsis were to die?"

With a little help from Black, Iris understood the question. "Well, basically what you just saw Zekrom do. Unless Kyurem, Reshiram, and Zekrom were united in a single being, they can never be a stable pokémon without their hero. Kyurem is closest to it, but in its normal state it's very weak, all its strength in Reshiram and Kyurem; so weak it's almost like a ghost. Ghetsis' dark mind must have appealed to it for him to control it. If he died, Kyurem couldn't hold Zekrom as a part of it without Reshiram, and it would become weak and ghost-like again, while Zekrom would turn into the Dark Stone. All in a huge release of energy that would obliterate anything nearby."

They were in the Champion's tower by now. "Then we have to go back! Stop!" shouted Boreas.

"What is it?" asked Black.

"We can't run away now, we can really hurt Plasma here. I think we can even capture their castle."

Alder had stopped too by now. "How, little Glaceon?"

"Well, by killing N, Diego did something we could never have done, but now Zekrom is controlled by Ghetsis, and I don't think anyone would have a serious problem killing him. We retrieve Reshiram as quickly as possible to combat Zekrom-Kyurem's mental influence, and then we fight Team Plasma in its own castle. Obviously we can't win by force of arms, but we could fight to distract them while some of us try to kill Ghetsis. It would not only leave them leaderless, but without the constant morale boost from Kyurekrom, while we would still have Reshiram. It might be enough to get them to surrender the castle, and even if they don't, a legendary being on our side, not theirs, would finally inspire people to fight against them."

–

Aqua tried to suppress her guilt as she sneaked down the stairs. It felt like she was betraying everyone, Boreas in particular, even though she knew leaving them was for their own good. Boreas was laying out his plan, and it was a good plan, or at least the best they had. But if she stayed and let herself be made part of it, she would only lower their chances of success. She had once again demonstrated in battle against N how unreliable she was. If she let Boreas count on her in this battle she would betray his trust and possibly make it all fail. She was helping him, really, by getting away. She was helping all the people hurt by Plasma by not getting involved in this. She should be very proud of all the people her decision had probably saved.

Of course, she knew that was complete bollocks. She was making excuses for her cowardice. But if she repeated them often enough to herself, she might start believing them.

"Going somewhere?" asked a voice.

Aqua turned around in shock. "Toxica! I-I was just..."

"Sneakin' off," Toxica finished her sentence. "Why?"

"Well, you saw what I did when I was up against Zekrom."

"Yeah, it turned you against us, but Boreas stopped you, and then you resisted it, fought it, and hurt it pretty bad. So why are you running away?"

"You've got it wrong: I turned against you. It wasn't as if it suddenly had me under mind control or something, it just strengthened something that was already there. And I should've resisted it, like you did, but I didn't. I've never been good at the whole loyalty thing, and I don't like humans. I don't like risking my life either."

"But-"

"If you summarise that, you can say I'm a disloyal coward who sympathises with the enemy. Do you think it's wise to count on someone like that in this battle?"

"Well, if it's you-"

"If I didn't leave, Boreas would count on me, you would count on me. And when I betray that trust, I might cause your deaths. That's why I have to leave."

"Listen up, Aqua," said Toxica firmly now that she had finally stopped talking, "I think that's just an excuse. Because like Boreas said, you're a better person than you think."

Aqua grimaced. "Boreas is many things, but not wise. To be honest, I think love has blinded him to my flaws."

"Well, I say it too! You would never consciously betray someone you love as much as Boreas, or friends like me or Selene. What is this _really_ about, Aqua?"

Aqua sighed in resignation. "I'm terrified. This battle is going to be very serious. Have you seen what was running after us? That's forty-nine powerful pokémon, six of which are ludicrously strong and incredibly rare monstrosities. Then there's this Zekrom-Kyurem hybrid, which is likely to be even stronger than Zekrom was. There's twenty-four more powerful pokémon commanded by the Elite Four, and probably thousands commanded by grunts. We've got a hundred at best with the resistance at our side, and most of them are considerably less powerful than our enemies." Aqua shivered. "In a few hours, there will be a lot of dead pokémon in that castle, no matter who wins. And not just enemies, in fact I have a strong feeling we won't all come back if we join this. I don't want to be among all those dead."

Toxica squeezed her shoulder. "I don't want you to be among them either. I don't want to be among them myself; it scares me too. But that's why I'm trying to get you to reconsider. Imagine if I died, or Selene, or especially Boreas, while you weren't there. Wouldn't you blame yourself to the end of your days, thinking you could've prevented it?"

While Aqua thought, Alder ordered: "Let's get back into the Castle, we've got a plan! We'll keep them as busy as we can, while our new Champion goes after Ghetsis! Spread out over the eastern and western wings and try to outflank them, but make sure you don't get isolated!"

Toxica smiled and looked at her. "What's it going to be, Aqua? If I have to say goodbye, I wish you all the best, but I hope you reconsidered..."

–

AUTHOR'S NOTES: And so we begin on the first chapter of the final part: The Point of no Return. First of all, I should clarify that I haven't finished Black 2 yet (I've just defeated Skyla, last time I played), so don't be surprised if my depiction of Kyurem and its forms differs substantially from how it is in-game. In fact, I'm assuming it does, since the Kyurem plot was for a large part thought up before its forms were even announced, and finalised within days of seeing the new Kyurem forms. As you've probably noticed by now, I don't mind deviating from the games at all. The same goes for whether N is Ghetsis' biological son or not.

Secondly, N. I know he's quite a popular character, so I'm assuming his death won't be liked by everyone. Rest assured I didn't kill him off because I don't like him (in fact I quite like him, though he's quite hard to write), but for other reasons. Several of those reasons should be easy enough to see from this chapter without me spelling them out.

Diego's flashback happened just before the beginning of chapter 60, in case that wasn't clear.

By the way, since I've been playing Black 2 a little lately, I've noticed Sage Rood's portrayal there differs significantly from how he is in my story. I like him quite a bit in the game, but don't expect him to change at all in my story because of it. Like always, he'll burn anyone who interferes alive (though he'll likely apologise for it).

FEEDBACK: TheGlaceonFanatic: Q: Amazing chapter! Boreas is really one lucky Glaceon, having the opportunity to fight the way he did here. With his luck, he should maybe start to play lottery or gamble, lol xD

A: Yeah, he's definitely got a good amount of luck. Though beating those four pokémon in a row was mainly because they were basically just wild pokémon that had had little training and had barely been used in N's pokémon league battles (Zekrom, with some help from Diego, is the reason he became Champion).

Q: The fights were great and descriptive, but I would've liked to read Aqua's battle though.

A: And I would've liked to write it. However, after this chapter it should be no surprise that there is another battle with Diego coming up soon. With that in mind, I felt that battle would be less interesting if we had already had a lengthy battle with Diego a few chapters before. So I had to choose between that battle and this one, and given what I've planned for the future battle it wasn't a hard choice. So Diego's battles with Octa and Aqua were pretty much completely skipped over.

Q: Generally, I also like that you changed the battle order etc. making it more original. The "battle with my friends" thing was a bit cliched, but in a good way.

A: Yeah, I suppose every pokémon story ever (including the games) has done that in some way or another.

Q: The conclusion was good as well, with N releasing the truth and Boreas and Diego shaking paws, heh heh xD

A: I thought it would be a fun way to end their enmity. For about ten minutes before it returned stronger than ever.

Q: And does Ghetses have Kyurem now?! That's going to be one tough battle...

A: Yes, it certainly will be.

Q: I'm also very disappointed that I was your only reader that reviewed your previous chapter...

A: Me too, but chapter 70 got a lot of reviews fortunately. (Thanks, everyone)

Somezero: Q: Whaaat eleven parts... well, that just means more to read! Although I've never left a review before, I've been reading this for quite a while and I must say, it's pretty good.

A: Thanks, I'm glad you enjoy it.

Q: How many chapters are left?

A: I can tell you how many chapters there are _not_ left: six. Because this will be the only part that isn't seven chapters long.

Sonosublime: Q: awesome chapter, and there was a lot going on. i liked Diego and Boreas' begrudging handshake XD

A: Me too, it was a lot of fun to imagine.

Q: what is that weird pokemon Ghetsis has? I thought you said in one of your earlier chapters that Hydreigon was his headliner?

A: It's Kyurem. And I only said Hydreigon would still play an important role in the final battle; I never said it would be on Ghetsis' team.

MrPirate461: Q [chapter 40]: Ouch. Just... ow.

It's not fair; the best writing always hurts the most.

I'm really enjoying your writing, when I'm not writhing in pain from the anguish it engenders; caused by its excellence and my own overgrown empathy.

A: Thank you. It's good to know those chapters caused you such anguish.

ChristianDragon: Q: I never played the Black and White games so I wouldn't have known that Sage Rood was once an Elite Four.

A: He wasn't; at least not as far as anything was mentioned in the games. I have expanded on the Seven Sages a lot in this story, and their positions as former Elite Four and Champions are part of that.

Q: Speaking of whom, I could barley understand what he was even saying. Go back to kindergarten, you incoherent babbler!

A: That would be Dutch, my mother language. Or, as Oscar Wilde called it "the only language that can be both farted and spoken."

MrPirate461: Q: Holy... wow. This is easily one of the best fics I've seen on this site. For a chapter without much of a cliffhanger, I find myself anticipating its successor to a surprising degree.

A: I hope you will keep enjoying it to its quite near end.


	72. Love and War

Chapter Seventy-Two: Love and War

"So what eventually got you to change your mind?" Boreas asked as they waited for Black to return with Reshiram in the Champion's tower.

"You know, I'm not really sure," said Aqua ponderously. "I didn't want to let Diego get away with murdering N, I didn't want to leave you to fight without me, I wanted to give myself a chance to maybe prove Toxica and you right, and I know Team Plasma needs to be stopped. I don't know which one convinced me, really. Probably a bit of each. I'm glad I've got a friend like Toxica to get me back in any case." She smiled and patted Toxica on her shoulder with her tail.

"So am I," said Boreas, "though it would've felt safer not to have you part of this battle."

Aqua gave him a sceptical look.

"I know, I know," Boreas laughed, "you're probably more capable of staying alive in this thing than me, and you wouldn't turn back for my concerns anyway. I was just saying."

"Yeah, you're right there," chuckled Aqua. "Between the two of us, you're the one who needs his back watched. After all, you're always getting yourself into danger because you don't think ahead."

"Hey, that's not true," chuckled Boreas. "I do think ahead and don't need you to keep me out of trouble."

"It's true, alright. You're reckless and silly."

Boreas tried very hard to keep a straight face. "I'm not, which means you're just poking your pretty nose into my business."

"Fool."

"Busybody." Their lips softly touched, ignoring Octa's frustrated sigh.

Aqua winked. "I do think Octa's jealous."

"I am not!" Octa enunciated. "However, I am frustrated, for our friends and allies are dying in battle right now while we have to wait for Black to retrieve Reshiram before we can join them; despite this, your minds are occupied by your courtship."

"Octa, my dear fellow," said Boreas, "my mind can use a little distraction right now. Besides, this could be our last chance to kiss; we might die soon, so why not make the most of things now?"

Boreas thought he saw something on Toxica's face at this, but then Black entered with Reshiram and interrupted the conversation. Pride and courage filled them all, knowing the truth was on their side. Fortunately, Reshiram didn't seem dismayed by Black's unceremonial dismissal earlier. "Come on, guys," said Black. "Let's find Ghetsis, end this, and all come back in one piece. It shouldn't be too hard."

Stepping out onto the bridge to Team Plasma's castle, they were nearly blown off by the storm and instantly soaked by rain. "Forgot about the storm!" shouted Black against the wind. "Get on Reshiram's back, everyone, we're flying!"

As he crawled on Reshiram's back, Boreas felt empowered and proud by the sheer touch of its soft, almost fur-like feathers. He was for a moment fully convinced by the sheer righteousness of their cause and pitying those misguided deniers of the truth out there, before he reminded himself not to be fooled by Reshiram's crap. "I had no idea legendaries were this annoying..." he muttered.

They were soon all on the large dragon's back, holding on to the white feathers tightly. "Go, Reshiram," commanded Black. "Fly us to Kyurem!"

Reshiram spread its vast white wings and leapt into the stormy sky. Boreas held on tight as they soared over Team Plasma's castle. Little figures fought below them, in courtyards and on walls, their attacks little sparks of light in the deep dark tempest. Black shouted something at Reshiram, and they entered into a dive and swooped right over the fighting on a wall. Reshiram shone brightly with white light on the combatants, invigorating the resistance and breathing fire down on Team Plasma.

They were about to make another pass, but a bolt of lightning barely missed them, its thunderclap deafeningly loud. The stormwinds pulled hard on Reshiram and those it carried, making it clear the shorter they flew through the storm, the better.

"KYUREM IS IN THERE," thundered Reshiram as they flew for one of the lower buildings, almost invisible through the thick rain curtain.

"Put us down at its entrance!" As they approached the building, an open courtyard in front of it became visible. Tiny figures were fighting even this deep into the castle, but they momentarily scattered as Reshiram descended like a bright, fiery falling star. Several seconds before it touched down, Boreas jumped from its back, landing on a Koffing floating several metres lower and taking it out, instantly jumped on, taking down a Flaaffy as well. A buzzing noise alerted him and allowed him to block a Beedrill's attack before it landed and respond in kind, grabbing the insect, sending a pulse of cold through it, and throwing it onto the Bagon that attacked him as well. A final attack took both down.

Then his friends joined the battle as well. Their allies were on the other side of the courtyard; they were surrounded by enemies here. Most of them were just grunts, and their pokémon were relatively easy to handle, but Boreas recognised a purple-robed old man with long, greying-brown hair and a goatee. With a shudder he recalled his disgusting and nearly fatal trip into the stomach of Zinzolin's Seviper. At least that Glaceon-eating monster was dead now, but the sage brought six powerful poison-types and a huge Hydreigon to the field.

"Ah, our new Shampion 'as honoured us with a visit! 'Ydreigon, show 'im your power!"

The dark, three headed serpent-dragon roared and attacked Reshiram with powerful pulses of energy from two of the heads, while the third devoured a Plusle that was actually on its own side. Reshiram took flight, wounded by the attacks, and flew at Hydreigon, spitting fire. The serpent itself leapt into the air, dodging the flames, and collided with Reshiram, two of its heads biting at the other dragon's throat while the third spit a beam of energy right into its face.

But Boreas had no more time to watch the titanic struggle between dragons: Zinzolin's team had reached them. A Drapion's powerful punch knocked him right into a soft, horribly stinky trashmonster. The Garbodor spit a wave of slime over him, but he blunted the assault by freezing it, then rapidly dodged its fist coming down. With an attack, he froze its oozy flesh in several places. But before he could continue, he saw movement faster than lightning from the corner of his eye. As he turned to parry its attack, he already realised he was too late; the Crobat was just too fast.

A solid beam of water knocked the bat out of the air and made it bounce off Garbodor. Boreas quickly nodded his thanks to Aqua and finished the momentarily grounded bat with an Ice Beam. He turned at the sound of Garbodor blobbering towards him, oozing sludge at him, and defended himself by freezing its every attack. The trashmonster was faster than it looked and Boreas had a hard time freezing the disgusting liquids it threw at him away, but was just fast enough.

An electric attack struck Boreas from somewhere just as he was about to freeze down yet another blob of goo. His muscles spasmed from the shock and made him miss his counterattack. Horrid, burning sludge covered his upper body a moment later. The goo felt like it was dissolving his fur and skin, so he tried to scrape it off with his paws, but he was hit by more balls of sludge, fully covering him in the nasty stuff.

A big wave of water impacted him strongly and washed most of the noxious goo off instantly. He was swept away in the wave, which soon turned into a rapid whirlpool with Garbodor at its centre before it retreated and left Aqua standing next to him.

"Really, my love," she teased as she blasted Garbodor with a jet of water, "how many more times do you plan on having me rescue you?"

Boreas got up and suppressed the instinct to shake out his fur; it wouldn't matter in this deluge anyway. Instead he Ice Beamed Garbodor. "It's not as if I'm helpless, I just had a bit of bad luck! I don't need you to save me _that_ often."

Aqua elegantly dodged the Garbodor's slimy bulk as it launched itself at her. "Sure you do," she chuckled, "you'd be helpless without me at your side."

Boreas laughed as he froze the ground beneath Garbodor, making it slip as it got up. "Maybe you're right; so I'd better make sure I keep you there." He suddenly had his best idea ever. "Let's get married."

Aqua turned right in the middle of a wave that was about to crash down on Garbodor, missing it instead. "WHAT?!"

Drapion saw its chance and jumped at Aqua, surrounded by slime. Boreas' mind lashed out with the stormwind, suddenly increasing a blast of wind to a tornado's strength and thereby launching Garbodor away and knocking Zinzolin's Weezing out of the air with it. "It's a tradition of human origin where you promise your eternal love for-"

"I know what it is!" said Aqua bewildered. "But in case you hadn't noticed, we're a little busy at the moment!"

They both had to run from a mighty ball of fire from the duel of the dragons, but stayed together. "Aqua," said Boreas as he parried a Vulpix's attack with one paw while carefully crystallising rain with the other into a beautiful flower made of ice, "this is likely our last chance. If I'm going to die today, this is one last thing I would like to have done. I love you," he said as he completed the flower and gave it to Aqua in one smooth motion, "will you marry me?"

Aqua looked at him with a wonderful expression of love and befuddlement, but had to jump out of the way of a Gurdurr's girder, then swept it away with a single wave. "Boreas, you're insane!" she laughed. "And I love you for it! Of course I'll marry you!"

It was one of the happiest moments of Boreas' life, to look into Aqua's happy, laughing face and know she truly wanted to be with him forever. He rolled out of the way of a Ledian's punch, making it hit a Kling instead and screech in pain before he knocked them both out with a single pulse of cold. "Wonderful!" he said as his tail briefly touched Aqua's.

"Yeah," she said with a twinkle in her eyes, "so, what exactly are we supposed to do?"

"Uhh..." Boreas realised he only had quite a vague idea of how a wedding was supposed to work; but he figured the details didn't matter as long as he and Aqua considered themselves married. "I think you're supposed to get a best man, to begin with."

Aqua nodded. "Right, let's get them, then!" They ran back to the rest of the team, which they'd gotten separated from, dodging a few attacks together while holding tails.

"Octa," said Boreas as he reached his friend, Ice Beaming the Drapion the Serperior was fighting in the face. "Will you be my best man? Aqua and I are getting married right now!"

"What the-" began Octa, using his enemy's cringe at Boreas' attack to stab it. "Of all the ludicrous ideas you've had, this has to be the worst! We're in a battle here!"

"Is that a yes or a no?"

"A yes, of course, my dear fellow!" Octa laughed.

"Toxica," asked Aqua, "will you be my best woman?"

"I'd be honoured," said Toxica, defeating Drapion with an Energy Ball, "but I don't think the bride is supposed to have a best woman too."

"Half the guests to the wedding aren't supposed to be trying to kill the other half and the wedding couple either, but we have to improvise here!" Aqua quickly soaked an attacking Numel.

"Then I'd love to be best woman," said Toxica. "This is wonderful!"

"Octa," said Boreas, "could you pull double duty and ask us the questions? I think you know them best!"

"Very well, my dear fellow." He scraped his throat. "Dearly beloved-" he parried a Pawniard's blade with his own. "And not so beloved, we are gathered here today to unite these two Eevees in matrimony! Boreas, do you-ack!" Weezing had emerged from under the unconscious Garbodor and was attacking them with dark clouds of smog. "Toxica and I can handle it, continue on your own!"

"Boreas," said Aqua, shooting a jet of water at an enemy behind Boreas' back, "do you take me to be your wife to love and cherish until death do us part?"

"I do!" said Boreas happily, Ice Beaming an approaching Sunflora down. "Aqua, do you take me to be your-" The two dragons, entangled in mighty combat, were about to crash down on them, so Boreas and Aqua ran away together, jumping over enemies and quickly dispatching a few. "-Husband, to love and cherish until death do us part, which I hope will be in more than a few minutes?"

"I do!" said Aqua, creating a rapid flow of water circling around them, keeping enemies away.

Boreas looked, but saw Octa was too far away. "Then I pronounce us husband and wife." he said with delight as he froze the wave.

Protected by the wall of ice, the battle's noise and chaos was at last gone for one moment. Aqua looked into Boreas' eyes with a happy smile. "You may now kiss the bride."

Boreas hugged Aqua tightly and kissed her, feeling his limitless love for this wonderful Vaporeon in every cell of his body. Their kiss seemed to last an eternity, so lost in their love were they, it even continued for another second when the wall of ice shattered all around them thanks to the fighting dragons. Then at last they separated and took down the enemies around them together. "C'mon, hubby," said Aqua with a smile. "Let's rejoin our best men."

"Good idea, I think the guests might be giving them trouble." They sprinted back to Octa and Toxica just in time to see them take down the Weezing. The two grass-types turned to them with happy expecting smiles.

"It's done," said Boreas joyfully, "we're married!"

"Congratulations, my dear fellow!" Octa grasped Boreas. "Now this is something I would never have expected: you getting wed before me."

They suddenly saw Sage Zinzolin running through the battlefield, pursued by Lucius and Selene, who had clearly defeated the sage's other pokémon. Octa extended his vines and made the robed human trip, then aimed his blade at the man's throat. "Sage Zinzolin, you have been defeated," declared Octa.

"Damn right he is," said Lucius. "Birdbrain and I took down the rest of his pokémon, and Hydreigon is getting its triple ass kicked by Reshiram. Kill him and let's get on with it."

Zinzolin breathed heavily with the blade at his throat, and said: "You may kill me, but you will lose zis battle and zis war nonetheless. It is inevitable. Victoire à la Plasma!"

Octa kept his blade on the Frenchman's throat for a moment, then withdrew it and slithered back a little. "I cannot kill him."

"Really?" asked Lucius after a moment. "That's good. Because I can!" He suddenly leapt onto Zinzolin, and Octa moved to stop him, but it was too late: Lucius bit at the sage's throat, and there was one final scream before he was silenced forever. Lucius got up, his mouth dripping with blood.

"How could you do that?!" roared Octa. "He was defeated, our prisoner! To kill him was an act of utter barbarity!"

"Get used to it!" snapped Lucius. "Remember, these bastards are our enemies, and they wouldn't hesitate to do the same to us. Remember what they did to Capella? This won't be the last of them whose blood I drink! We're here to kill another one of them in the first place, so quit whining!"

Though Boreas was rather shocked by the brutal execution, he couldn't really feel sad for Zinzolin's demise. "Come on," he said to stop Octa from arguing. "We've got to help Reshiram defeat that Hydreigon."

Reshiram was already winning on its own, however, the Hydreigon a lot more wounded. They were flying through the air above the battlefield, their intense beams flashing like the storm's lightning. Boreas shot an Ice Beam at Hydreigon's wings, and his friends joined him in attacking. It spit a great ball of fire down from one head; Boreas got the storm to blow them out of its path with intense force. They all landed painfully and in a heap, but at least they weren't incinerated. They wanted to help Reshiram fight Hydreigon some more, but the three-headed dragon saw its trainer was dead and rapidly dived away from its legendary enemy, flying rapidly over the battlefield. Reshiram was about to pursue it, but Black shouted: "Leave it, Reshiram! We have to go after Kyurem!"

Reshiram descended. "AS YOU COMMAND. THE TRUTH WILL ALWAYS WIN."

"And Lucius," Black scolded, "I don't want to see you kill anyone other than Ghetsis again! We take them as prisoners, understood?"

"Sure," lied Lucius.

Boreas became aware of an enemy attacking him and turned around instantly, but too late: the Nidorino had reached him. But instead of a painful impact, there was dark flash and then it was thrown aside by a cute Umbreon. "Boreas," she said, "it's been a while, hasn't it?"

"Febby!" Boreas blurted out in surprise. "It's great to see you again!" He saw now that White was greeting Black, and that she had her entire team with her. Boreas was momentarily annoyed with seeing Esper, before deciding it really was about time he stopped being so childish towards him. "I had no idea you were in the resistance!"

"Well, we've been with them only shortly," she giggled, "White didn't want to give us up when Team Plasma took over, so she eventually went to the Gym Leader for help, and he got us into the resistance. It's good not to have to hide all the time. Oh, and here's Esper!"

"Hi, dude," greeted Esper, "how are you?"

"I'm well," Boreas said kindly. "In fact, I just got married."

"You did?!" Febby blurted out with something between surprise, joy, and jealousy. "Who's the lucky girl?"

Boreas looked for his bride, and saw she was in trouble fighting a Scrafty that looked like Grimsley's. "Excuse me, just a moment." He rushed for them, firing Ice Beams that hurt and distracted the Scrafty enough for Aqua to strike back at it. While it wasn't defeated, it retreated behind other combatants, unwilling to fight the two of them. "Looks like I'm not the only one in this marriage that needs the occasional rescue," teased Boreas.

"Oh, shut up," laughed Aqua.

"Anyway," said Boreas, "I want to introduce you to Febby and Esper. Febby, this is Aqua, my wife." That sounded very good, thought Boreas.

"Hello, Febby," said Aqua with a mean little smile. "I've heard much about you from my _husband_."

"Did you?" said Febby, suddenly grumpy. "I heard little about you."

"Hardly surprising. I suppose the facts speak for themselves, don't they, my love?"

Boreas made eye contact with Esper and saw the Espeon felt as surprised and uncomfortable by the sudden hostility as Boreas. "Yes, yes, I suppose they do. Anyway, I think we should be paying more attention to the battle, and try to reach Ghetsis. But it was great to see you again, Febby."

Aqua and Boreas ran through enemy ranks to catch up to their friends, who were already in the entrance to the building where Ghetsis apparently was, fighting in a long corridor full of grunts and their pokémon. "What'd you do that for?" Boreas asked in annoyance as he sidestepped to dodge an attack.

"Do what?" Aqua asked with all the sweetness of an apple filled with razorblades. "I was just having a nice girl-to-girl chat with Febby."

Boreas snorted. "Sure, 'nice'. You were clearly trying to make her jealous."

"Well, perhaps," said Aqua with a sly smile. "After all, she was stupid enough to choose that Espeon instead of you."

Boreas chuckled. "That's no reason to childishly rub it in. Funny thing is, I had no idea she had even had any interest in me at all until just now."

"I'm not surprised she is, I married you after all. Would it have changed anything if you had known?"

"No," said Boreas, without even having to think about it. "I mean, Febby is a nice girl and all, but you..." he searched for the right words. "Well, I love you."

Aqua chuckled. "That's what I figured."

–

"Dammit, it was about time you two rejoined us!" snapped Toxica.

"Sorry," said Aqua, "we got a little caught up talking to an old friend of Boreas'."

The help of the two newly-wed Eevees was very welcome, as Black's team was getting swarmed with enemies in the corridor. Fortunately there was no rain inside, and each enemy on its own was quite weak. But with as many of them as there were in here, it was hard not to be overwhelmed. Toxica already had several wounds, but they were slowly making progress through the corridor thanks to Reshiram, which made many of its enemies flee, and easily defeated them otherwise.

As Toxica fought against one enemy after another, she noticed Boreas and Aqua were fighting closely together in concert, always covering each other, their attacks working together brilliantly. It warmed her heart to see her friends like this. To see them get married suddenly was a wonderful, though strange surprise in this massive battle. It also made her wonder if she shouldn't forgive Octa. She knew the Eevees had done this because the chances either of them wouldn't live to see tomorrow were large, and they were no better for Octa and her. Boreas' words "we might die soon, so why not make the most of things now?" had hit home. But of course, she was still quite mad at Octa for what he'd done. Dying broken up with him was not an appealing thought, but neither was forgiving him, even if she was pretty sure his regret nor his decision to leave his House were fake.

Lost in thought like this, Toxica was fighting pretty much on automatic pilot. It was bound to go wrong sooner or later, and of course it did. An Absol was faster than her and swept at her with the razor-sharp sickle on its head. She fell back with a cry of pain and a deep cut in her chest. Absol pounced her to finish it, but found its sickle crossed by a Leaf Blade. "That was most unwise of you."

To Toxica's great annoyance, Octa engaged the Absol and fought it, protecting her as she focussed on regenerating her wound. "Dammit, Octa, mind your own business, you nosy bastard! I can take care of myself!"

"I shan't," said Octa defiantly, "for you evidently _do_ need my help."

"Piss off," she snapped as she got up again slowly. "I know you're just trying to impress me, but you can forget about it!"

Octa defeated the Absol. "What I did was to help you; I would have done the same for any of us, even Lucius."

"Codswallop!" snapped Toxica as their progress through the corridor went faster: it seemed White's pokémon were creating a distraction on the other end. "I know you still want to be with me, but it's over between us! I don't care that we might be about to die, or that you might've left your House for me, I'm done with you!"

She realised then she was sounding madder than Selene right now and forced herself to calm down and stop rambling. She was ashamed to have flipped out like that for so little reason. "I-I'm sorry, I-"

But they had finally reached the end of the army of pokémon in the corridor, the rest too occupied with fighting White. The grunts that commanded them had fled into rooms to the sides, so nothing stood between them and the hall where Ghetsis was. Reshiram rushed ahead and bashed the doors down, showing a grand, ornate hall. But Kyurem and the rest of Ghetsis' team still stood between them and the Sage.

–

AUTHOR'S NOTES: This chapter was a lot of fun to write, and therefore appears only eight days after the previous one; I haven't written one that fast since chapter 57. I listened to the soundtrack to Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End while writing it, particularly track 11: "I Don't Think No is the Best Time" (youtube dot com slash watch?v=oFVfthu0beE). And yes, Boreas and Aqua marrying in battle was partially inspired by a similar scene in that movie. I hope that it was as fun to read as it was to write, though I can imagine it might be a little cheesy.

And yes, Zinzolin is really dead, which together with N's death goes to show some of the reasons why I couldn't do a sequel based on Black2 even if I wanted to (as has been asked a few times)

FEEDBACK: Arcane1ManaX: Q: Diego has already shown his ability could be passed on to other beings, and Kyurem in the game is able to force the legendary dragons into stone form; So I'm betting N isn't dead.

A: I hadn't played to that part of the game yet when I wrote last chapter (only finished it a few days ago). Don't hold your breath for N to turn up alive, because you'll be just as dead as him if you do.

TheGlaceonFanatic: Q: Wow, this was certainly a very intense chapter! I didn't expect N to die, and it came quite as a surprise. It was interesting seeing the whole from Diego's POV, as things are very different.

A: Ever since chapter 57 I have been setting things up in such a way that it would seem Diego would likely switch sides and be redeemed at this point. It was fun to do, but ultimately no more than a misdirection on my part, and a minor personality crisis on Diego's. As the incident with the random Glaceon (and plenty more incidents with Boreas) shows, he is a very evil Zoroark. In a way, I suppose he is like Skrain Dukat from Deep Space Nine: he appears outwardly evil, but when you get to know him better, you find there's some good in him. But when you dig past that, to his true core, you find it's darker than you could ever have suspected. Diego is much the same. He has a heart of gold: cold and metallic.

Q: I feel sorry for that random Glaceon... It struck me even harder than N's death, since I kinda already anticipated it after reading the parts of the chapter.

A: Yes, it was a very evil thing to do, which makes it a very good test for Diego to see if he's still truly himself despite his confusion. (Though he wouldn't call it evil, of course)

Q: I hope Aqua stays, and I think that it probably is what she's going to do, but I'm of course not sure... I anticipate an epic battle!

A: I hope the battle is epic so far.

TrueBolt: Q: Yo, it's TrueBolt. Still here bro, but because of my limit of online time, I've just been copying the chapters and reading them on my computer.

A: Ah, I'd thought you'd stopped reading it, it's great to hear you're still reading.

Q: And I think you made N's room sound more creepy than it really was. o_o Or maybe it was that creepy... I dunno.

A: I thought it had something vaguely sinister in the games (and of course now in Black and White 2 that's increased a lot for the entire creepy ruins of Plasma's castle...), and wrote that scene with that slightly creepy feeling in mind.

Q: Just got a USB mic, so I'm gonna be starting the audio book myself soon. (I hope) ;3

A: Oh, that's wonderful; I was as good as sure you'd given up on this.

3ZSnap: Q: Don't tell me that Diego will die as the main antagonist.

A: Well, I definitely won't tell you anything like that, or denying that, since of course it would be a huge spoiler. One thing I would like to say something about is whether or not Diego is the **main **antagonist right now. That of course depends on how you define the main antagonist. Is the main villain the Big Bad, the ultimate leader of the villains (like Emperor Palpatine in Star Wars)? If so, he is of course not the main villain right now; Ghetsis is. Diego is merely the Dragon to him. On the other hand, you could define that term as the villain the hero has the strongest connection with and the most emotional stake in defeating (like Darth Vader in Star Wars); in which case he is the main antagonist right now.

Q: I like him and Boreas on the same side but now Boreas will no doubt kill him.

A: Possibly. Never forget that all-important adjective in the story's title.


	73. The Tightening Noose

Chapter Seventy-Three: The Tightening Noose

Ghetsis looked surprised to see them enter the huge hall. "If it isn't our new Champion. Good of you to have come and brought me Reshiram. It was about time poor Kyurem became a single pokémon again, wasn't it?"

"You'll pay for having N killed, monster," growled Aqua with a look of pure hate on her face.

Ghetsis looked at her with amusement. "N was the monster, you know. He was created and raised as nothing but a tool to get me Zekrom, and that was all there ever was to him. He was a freak without a human heart."

"You're one to talk about having a heart," said Black,"after using and then killing your own son like that!"

"You clearly haven't understood the philosophy of the Seven Sages-"

Black interrupted. "You'd better make that Six Sages. Zinzolin is dead."

Ghetsis seemed genuinely hurt for a moment before shaking it off with a shrug. "That's a pity, but no serious problem. You see, I'm about to kill you and reunite Kyurem fully, so I can do with one Sage less. I'll have a perfect pokémon for a perfect Emperor of Team Plasma, of Unova, of the world!" From beneath the huge mantle that was part of his robe, Ghetsis revealed a cane with the Team Plasma logo on it and banged it on the ground, snapping Kyurem to attention with the sound. "I am the most powerful Sage, and don't really need the help of my allies any more."

"And what would your so-called allies say," asked Black, "if they heard this?"

Ghetsis shrugged. "It's nothing they don't know. They would do the same if they were as brilliant, as wise, and as powerful as I am. As it is, they're content to bide their time and be my second-in-commands until they can replace me some day. Of course that day will never come, as I am perfection! And now, I've got four new Sages to replace poor Zinzolin anyway."

"There's only one problem with your plan:" said Black, "you'll be dead soon."

Ghetsis laughed. "What an incredibly predictable thing to say. Instead, you should thanks me: you got to be the sole audience member for one of my speeches. But fine, if you want to rush into things, then so be it. We both have seven pokémon, so at least you have some tiny chance against me." He banged his cane to the floor, and his team began to move. Other than Kyurem, there were an Escavalier, Spiritomb, Bouffalant, Seismitoad, Eelektross, and Kingdra. Ghetsis clearly had the tactical insight not to base his team on any one type, but instead on pokémon with very few weaknesses. But Boreas reminded himself this battle wasn't about taking out the enemy pokémon, but the enemy trainer. If someone could just kill Ghetsis, Kyurem would be gone too... Boreas quickly looked around the hall, taking anything that might be useful in. On each side of the room, there was a huge statue of a Lugia on a stone pedestal three metres high and almost five wide.

"An even fight," sneered Black, "are you scared yet?"

Ghetsis laughed. "You'll need at least another trainer on your side to make it even. Farewell, Black."

Ghetsis banged his cane again and the battle started in all its deadliness. Boreas instantly aimed a powerful attack for Ghetsis, but the man jumped behind the pedestal of the statue behind him.

Mighty attacks flew over Black's team aimed for him, so he quickly did the same, seeking cover behind the statue's huge pedestal. Reshiram and Kyurem collided with terrifying might in combat in the middle of the hall, fighting each other with devastating flames, lightning bolts, and ice.

Boreas tried to run around the enemy team in the hopes of reaching Ghetsis, but found his path suddenly blocked by a huge wave of water. He tried to freeze it before it reached him, but was too late: it crashed into him with nearly bonebreaking force. He was submerged in a maelstrom of water. The rapid, chaotic currents prevented him from freezing any of the water, since the water near him would be far away within a second, and turned him so suddenly his neck felt whiplashed soon. The currents never allowed him to surface at all, so he was rapidly running out of air.

He caught occasional glimpses of a large, dragon-like seahorse with a sharp snout in the maelstrom, a bright white ball of energy forming on its snout. Boreas tried to attack Kingdra, but the currents were so fast and unpredictable his attacks mostly missed, and the one time an Ice Beam did hit his enemy it seemed to be hurt little.

All of a sudden, the currents held Boreas in a single place, but before he could capitalise on it a bright white beam of energy enveloped most of his body. He felt like he was on fire, his every cell burning with pain. He weakened the beam with powerful pulses of cold through the water, but it still felt as if the beam was disintegrating him layer by layer. He was unable to resist screaming in agony and so lost the last air in his lungs. The terrible beam ended at last, so Boreas attacked back and froze the water near Kingdra, then struggled to reach the surface as his lungs were desperately begging for air by now. Kingdra was too occupied with getting away from the suddenly encroaching ice to keep up the drowning currents, so Boreas could finally ascend in the water. His muscles burned and he had a dreadful headache, not even to mention the pain the beam had inflicted, but he spent the last of his strength to reach the surface while suppressing his breathing reflex. His front paw finally touched delicious air: he was almost there.

But hope died as a current pulled him deep under again. In the shock of the moment, Boreas' breathing reflex got the better of him and he inhaled deeply, but instead of liberating air, water reached his lungs. It was like inhaling magma: his lungs were in agony from the water filling them, and he instinctively breathed in and out quickly, more agonising water filling his lungs as his vision slowly faded to black.

Though his mind had raced to find a way to save himself, he finally realised he was truly drowning to death, and decided he didn't want his life to end thinking only of the burning pain in his lungs and the terror of not being able to reach the surface. He focussed only on Aqua, picturing her face when she had agreed to marry him minutes ago. Thinking of her he felt his mind slowly go blank. In his dying moments his oxygen-deprived brain dreamt of her grabbing him, her sweet face full of fear for his life, and kissing him. The pain, the panic, and the all-consuming need for oxygen faded as death embraced him. At least it was a good dying dream, Boreas thought through a densely fogged mind.

But the dream continued as Aqua swam rapidly through the currents holding him, and shielded him from another beam with her own body, screeching in pain underwater as she was hit. Moments later, Boreas was thrown out of the water and landed hard on the ground, feeling utterly horrible. He coughed and vomited up floods of water and wheezed to get air, but his lungs were still almost full of the horrible stuff and the air he breathed barely offered any relief. Between coughs and wheezes he was still drowning on dry land.

He was lifted by two large human arms that pressed hard on his chest and held him facing downward. It hurt, but made him cough up far more water than before. Boreas was vaguely aware Black was running, holding him while the enemy's attacks flew him around the ears. Boreas' breathing became slightly more effective, slowly removing the pain and fog in his mind as they dived behind the cover of a statue.

Boreas had no idea how long he coughed up water while Black pressed on his chest, but he felt himself slowly recover. "Tha-Thank you..."

"Are you feeling better now, little buddy?" asked Black full of concern. "I thought I'd lost you there for a moment."

"Much- much better," gasped Boreas, "still- bloody awful."

Boreas tried to see how the battle was going, but hidden behind the pedestal he could only see the large blob of water he'd nearly drowned in: Aqua was still fighting Kingdra inside, but it was hard to see who was winning.

Suddenly an armoured insect with two sharp lance-arms, one of which was covered in blood, hopped around the corner. Boreas tried to get up to fight, but was still in no condition to do so, breaking out in a water-spewing coughing fit instead. "Don't worry, little buddy," said Black, pulling his knife, "I'll defend myself."

The Escavalier ignored Boreas as it lunged out at Black with its lances. The human fortunately dodged them and stabbed back, only for his knife to harmlessly bounce off the armour. Escavalier stabbed at him again, but Black dodged it.

A huge ball of fire from the battle of the legendaries hit the top of the Lugia statue and melted the stone there instantly, distracting Escavalier for a moment and allowing Black to put some distance between them. But followed and stabbed at him again: Black parried with his knife, but the powerful pokémon easily flung it from his hand. It stabbed with its other lance and pierced Black's leg all the way through.

Boreas got up, forcing himself past his weakness to go help his badly wounded trainer. He ran into Escavalier's back just as it was about to kill Black with another stab, making it miss. Boreas put a weak pulse of cold through his enemy. Escavalier wasn't hurt much and threw Boreas off, then turned around to finish Black. The human had tried to crawl away, but with his one leg pierced and bleeding heavily he was slower even than the armoured insect. Boreas tried to fight Escavalier again, but was felled by a dreadful coughing fit.

On the other side of the statue, Kyurem tried to hit Reshiram with an obliterating Hyper Beam, but missed. The beam hit the hall's roof instead, where a rain of boulders exploded from its impact as it knocked all the way through. One of the heavy rocks struck down Escavalier as it was about to strike, knocking it out, though its armour prevented it from being crushed completely.

Fortunately neither Black nor Boreas were hit, but the wound on Black's leg was bleeding badly. Boreas went over to him and softly breathed ice-cold air on the leg to slow the blood loss. "I'll be alright, little buddy," said Black with a cringe of pain. "Go help the others, they'll need you more than me right now."

Boreas nodded and, coughing up some more water, he walked around the statue cautiously. The first thing he noticed was how wounded Reshiram and Kyurem looked. Their titanic combat was still going on, massive fire and ice colliding every second, but they were covered in wounds and looking ready to fall. Instead of blood, their wounds oozed a strange gas that hung about them; white for Reshiram and black for Kyurem.

The next thing he noticed was that many of the other combatants were defeated by now; fortunately none looked dead. Aqua was now fighting Seismitoad in the big blob of water surrounding them, while Lucius spit fire at a Bouffalant charging him. With Ghetsis' remaining pokémon fighting his friends, Boreas quickly sneaked over the battlefield to the statue Ghetsis had hidden behind, planning to end this immediately. With heavy creaking and crashing, more parts of the ceiling came down, making a wide crack that let in rain and wind.

He walked around the pedestal's corner: there was Ghetsis, his robes partially torn by someone's attack, and all that stood between him and Boreas was a brown, bell-shaped stone. Boreas jumped around the corner and instantly Ice Beamed the Sage, but his attack never landed: a ghostly vortex of purple and green appeared around the stone and absorbed the beam. Boreas quickly tried to parry the Shadow Ball it fired back at him, but still found himself weakened by nearly drowning.

The other pokémon disappeared before Boreas' next attack hit, and then he was floating in a purple vortex. _"We are Spiritomb," _said dozens of whispering voices at once, _"you are now one of us."_

Terror struck Boreas as _something _was trying to enter his mind as they said this. _"Y-you're just trying to scare me! The legends can't possibly be true!"_

"_Don't resist it, Boreas, it's not so bad to be Spiritomb,"_ said Capella's kind voice.

Boreas nearly dropped his guard in shock and the entities closed in on his mind. But he realised what they were trying to do and immediately unleashed all his icy power into the centre of the vortex, creating a Blizzard inside it. A hundred and eight voices cried out in agony, and he was suddenly back in the hall, the Spiritomb before him was pulsating furiously. "That is for abusing Capella's memory!"

He fired an Ice Beam at the stone: it cracked and there were more cries as the vortex shrunk away. "And that is for Black!"

"_We are Spiritomb... We share our pain." _Boreas writhed in sudden agony as he felt his very life force drain away while the vortex grew again. _"You cannot defeat us. You will join us."_

Boreas fired a continuous Ice Beam into the vortex's centre, shrinking it as his life force drained away. "And that..." he growled, "is for Aqua!"

The Spiritomb finally disappeared entirely, reduced to just the stone. Boreas collapsed, less strength left in him than in a slice of white bread. But he knew he had to kill Ghetsis and tried to get back up.

"Not bad," said the robed human as he swung his cane and knocked Boreas out with a single hit to the head.

–

Blood dripped through Boreas' fur when he woke up again feeling like someone had run him over, but he instantly remembered what had happened. There was no Ghetsis behind the pedestal any more, though: only the stone of the defeated Spiritomb. He slowly got up and looked at the battlefield. To his horror, Reshiram lay defeated before Kyurem, and none of his friends were still fighting: they all lay on the ground either unconscious or barely able to move. Ghetsis stood behind Kyurem, laughing. "Come out, come out, wherever you are!"

Kyurem fired a Hyper Beam at the statue Black hid behind, shattering it in a huge explosion. This was too much for the heavily-damaged roof: it all came down. Ghetsis shouted a command and Kyurem used some kind of pulse that blasted Boreas away on its shockwave, along with the pieces of the collapsing roof, causing it to explode outwards instead. The hall was completely ruined and had no roof any more, but no-one was crushed by the debris. However, Black was completely defenceless against Kyurem now. He couldn't even flee with his pierced leg. Boreas rushed back as fast as his legs would carry him, which was unfortunately very slow. "Kyurem," shouted Ghetsis, "Fusion Bolt!"

Huge electric shocks hit Black, and he squirmed helplessly as he was electrocuted. The dragon kept on shocking him on and on. Boreas managed to break out in a run: his only chance was to take out Ghetsis before Kyurem killed Black. He jumped at Ghetsis, firing off an Ice Beam as he did.

Boreas and the Ice Beam hit Ghetsis, knocking him down to the ground, but just as Boreas was about to finish it, Kyurem's head turned and spit a beam of light at him that charred his fur and knocked him back, landing hard on the ground. The blackness encroached on him and his legs were barely responsive. _Don't let him down now, dammit! I HAVE to keep going!_

But as much as his mind wanted to, his body was spent. It was nothing short of a miracle he managed to remain awake, let alone move. "No... No..." he muttered weakly as he squirmed with a front paw in an attempt to rescue Black.

The human lay on the ground now, smoking and still convulsing several seconds after the shocks had stopped. "Kyurem..." said Ghetsis as he got up. Boreas cooled his body down a little: he might be able to manage a very weak Ice Beam and his brain blazed trying to think of a way to save Black with it. "Kill him."

There had to be something he could do, some idea that would stop Kyurem and Ghetsis right now... There had to! Electricity on Kyurem's body gathered at its snout in a fraction of a second as Boreas' half-conscious mind made overtime.

He had no idea. All he could do was look on, completely powerless, as a huge flash of lightning ended the life of his beloved trainer and friend. He wept bitter tears of rage as the fallen Reshiram's body immolated and glowed with light. It emanated huge spitfires that bent off their track and hit Kyurem instead as Reshiram curled up and became a floating white ball of fire and light. But just before it was about to explode, Kyurem emanated a big cloud of greyness that merged with the ball of white energy instead and mixed with it as it retook a physical shape.

Reshiram had become Kyurem-like. Its once pure white lower body was now covered in grey scales, and its head had become like Kyurem's empty face, but with Reshiram's white feathers on it as well.

"What is this?!" exclaimed Ghetsis. "They were supposed to become a single, complete Kyurem! How can they be two incomplete Kyurems?!"

Boreas didn't care at the moment, his mind in flames of hate for the evil monster that had murdered his trainer. He tried to drag himself to Ghetsis, even if all he could do was bite the man's ankles it would be better than nothing. But he was too weak.

"Hmm..." muttered Ghetsis. "Reshiram and Zekrom must have been apart for so long reuniting them has become very hard... So instead, a bit of Kyurem's spirit merged with each. But who am I to complain? Two Kyurems for the price of one!" he laughed and one by one returned the pokémon that were still out to their pokéballs. Boreas was still dragging himself towards Ghetsis, centimetre by centimetre, completely focussed on revenge. But he came nowhere close, as Ghetsis climbed on the black Kyurem's back and ordered them to ascend. The two Kyurems flew out of the ruined hall. Boreas' will gave out and he lost consciousness.

–

When Boreas woke up, he was under water again. After an initial moment of panic he realised he had clearly been breathing this water for a while, which meant it was Aqua Ring, and that meant Aqua was still alive and helping him recover. But even she couldn't help him recover from the horrible loss he had just suffered. He glumly let the veil of water restore his energy and lessen the pain of his wounds greatly.

When the veil disappeared, Boreas saw Toxica had taken Black's potions from his backpack and was helping the others recover in silence while Aqua did the same with her Aqua Ring. Boreas felt immensely alone. He slowly walked to Black's body. At least it didn't look nearly as gruesome as Capella's. The electricity had scorched him in a few places, and of course his leg was still badly wounded, but overall Black looked barely more than asleep now. Boreas touched his friend's head, and found it was ice cold like the storm itself. He wasn't used to others being that cold.

Just as Boreas felt the tears coming he felt a welcome presence next to him. He embraced Aqua tightly and cried on her shoulder. She rubbed his neck and back softly, trying to comfort him. "I'm so sorry..." she whispered. "I'm so sorry..."

Boreas' tears slowly stopped with Aqua comforting him, and his grief turned to fury slowly. He finally let go of Aqua and looked around. "Did any of you see where Ghetsis went?"

"I did," said Selene solemnly. "I could see the highest tower, the one with the throneroom, from where I lay. He flew there."

"Right," said Boreas, "then I'll follow and kill him."

"My dear fellow," said Octa kindly, "I share your need to avenge this most grievous loss... But we must rein in our righteous anger and think of the greater good. Ghetsis has all three parts of Kyurem now: his death will no longer change much, and therefore we can't win. We have to alert the resistance and help them retreat."

"Iris said the three dragons would have to become Kyurem again together for them to be a complete pokémon. For some reason, they've become two different Kyurems instead: therefore both are still missing a part of Kyurem and can't be stable without a... 'Hero'" he spat out the so very inappropriate word, "to bond with. We kill Ghetsis, and both of them do their exploding thing."

Octa nodded pensively. "That is a very good point, my dear fellow... But can we be sure of that? If you are mistaken, many more might die. And even if you're right, we couldn't defeat Ghetsis with Reshiram on our side; how shall we ever kill him now that all three dragons are his?"

Boreas sighed. "I don't know. You're right: the six of us can't defeat his team. But maybe some of us can distract them, while the others go after Ghetsis?"

"A distraction within a distraction..." mumbled Aqua.

"Enough talk!" snapped Lucius. "I'm not gonna let those bastards get away with killing two of my friends! I don't care what you guys do, I'm gonna kill them all, right now!"

They tried to reason with him, but he rushed out of the ruined hall. "He'll get himself killed like this instead, I'll stay with him!" said Selene, flying off after him.

"Dammit," cursed Boreas as he ran after the two dark-types. "We can't let ourselves be split up like this! Come on, we have to keep up with them!"

–

Boreas recoiled in terror as blazing heat blistered his skin and instinctively lashed out with wind to blow the heat away from him, which saved his fur from catching fire. He was clearly not going to be able to get past Rood as easily as most of the rest of the combatants.

He had followed Selene through the now abandoned, half-collapsed corridor and through the battlefield as fast as possible, but had slowly lost her anyway. Fortunately he knew where Lucius was likely heading: the tallest tower. All they had to do was go there, and they would hopefully run into their friends. Boreas had kept running, looking behind him to find he was completely alone only much later.

He didn't know where Aqua, Octa, and Toxica had lost him, if they'd followed him at all, but he'd realised the only place there was a good chance of them running into each other again was at the tallest tower. So he'd made his way through the battlefield alone, not interfering even when he saw the enemy's dragons easily destroy pokémon by pokémon. Even Hydreigon was still a threat: now that Sage Zinzolin was dead, it had gone rogue, slaughtering and sometimes devouring pokémon and humans from both sides with brutish glee. As he made his way through the battle, it became clear to him things were going poorly: they were badly outnumbered, and each of the six remaining Sages and the Elite Four was more powerful than as good as all the trainers from the resistance. Though most didn't know about Ghetsis killing Black and taking Reshiram yet, all could feel it. Boreas hadn't noticed it in his rage over Black's death before, but Ghetsis having all three dragons had an incredibly depressing effect on all the resistance, and invigorated the enemy. Many were scared and looked as if they were about to surrender or flee.

Despite that, a minor victory had been won in this part of the castle, as Elesa, White, and one other trainer had broken through the seemingly endless line of grunts. However, they had encountered Sage Rood and his fire-types leading half a dozen grunts in a maze of corridors, and Boreas had just run into their battle. It was on the only way to the tower, so he had no choice and had tried to get through the battlefield. But each attempt had been foiled, so it was easy to see he wasn't getting through without helping Elesa and White beat Rood. Since most of their team was busy fighting Salamence in a different corridor, that would be difficult.

After barely saving himself from being incinerated by Chandelure, he tried to blow it out of the air: to no avail, as the ghostly chandelier barely seemed to notice the wind. It blew a stream of fire at Boreas, but he handily parried it and responded with an Ice Beam, which had very little effect on the ghost-type. He dodged a powerful Flamethrower that made the floor sizzle after, and defended himself from multiple more fire-attacks.

He pushed himself against the wall and from this position fired an Ice Beam behind one of the decorative shields that hung on the wall, hitting the wire that kept it up there so it fell off, hitting Chandelure and crushing it to the ground. "Just like old times," he chuckled.

But he wasn't done yet: Chandelure was only brought down, not defeated yet. A scorching burst hit his front paws from under the heavy shield, setting them alight. Boreas jumped on top of the shield as he cursed with pain and extinguished his burning paws quickly. He brought the shield down on his trapped opponent several more times, then took a moment to inspect his paws. His fur was scorched and his skin quite sore and full of blisters, but he could continue.

He ran around the corridor's corner, where he found Febby duelling Ninetales on her own, badly hurt already and completely on the defensive. Boreas recalled he had found this Ninetales very attractive when he had first seen her, that it was the first time he'd had an interest in a girl in fact. Now all he could see was Febby, wounded by deep cuts and a very bad-looking burn on her side, defending against a constant stream of attacks from the Ninetales.

"Hey, you!" Boreas challenged the fire-type, cloaking himself in a fierce snowstorm that filled up the corridor around him. "Keep your paws off her!"

He sprinted at Ninetales like a comet with the raging Blizzard around. Ninetales turned her attention from the wounded Umbreon to the roaring tide of white about to crash into her and breathed a powerful Flamethrower into it: missing Boreas, who was using his Snow Cloak to conceal himself. He pounced the Ninetales, firing an Ice Beam while lashing out with the roaring storm that overwhelmed the other fox like a tsunami.

Ninetales was strong, throwing him off rapidly, but he just followed up with more of the Blizzard, the winds of it heavy with a painful rain of liquid air. Boreas easily dodged another powerful fire attack, completely in his element in the icy storm, and surprise Ice Beamed Ninetales from the side.

Ninetales breathed intense, bright white fire, but not at Boreas: the fire instead coalesced into a fierce, hovering orb of intense light and heat like the Sun. Boreas tried to hold on to his storm, but the powerful heatwave washed it away, quickly dispersing it through the wide corridors.

Ninetales blew a wave of flame onto Boreas. He defended himself, but his pulse of cold weakened the inferno only a little. There was a searing pain and he was thrown against the wall, ablaze with the fire. Using his own powers of cold he quickly doused himself, but he felt roasted.

"Impressive weather, little snowflake," said the Ninetales angrily. "But now it's time for you to melt!"

"Don't count _me_ out yet!" With a flash of darkness, Febby collided with her, throwing her to the ground and lashing out at her with claws and teeth surrounded by dark energy. But after the initial surprise, Ninetales was still stronger and gained the upper hand, clawing at Febby with vicious claws until she bled heavily. As Boreas tried to fight again, Ninetales breathed fire right into Febby's face.

He roared in fury and tried to freeze Ninetales, but in the desert-like heat of the orb, his wounds made him quite weak. He tried to blow the orb away, but couldn't. Ninetales turned to him, getting off Febby. "Sorry about that," she said insincerely, "but this is what happens to all those who oppose us. Now for you..."

She breathed in to incinerate Boreas, and was blasted away by a huge, powerful beam of green light. "Thank you for all this light," said Octa casually. "'Tis quite rare this far north."

Boreas had no time to thank Octa: he rushed for Febby. "Febby! Come on, let's get you to White!"

"B-Boreas..." she mumbled. "It's too late..."

"No, it's not." Boreas chilled down her many deep cuts, slowing the blood loss from them. "C'mon, Octa, we have to get her help."

"Right you are, my dear fellow. And you as well, if I might add. I'm glad I found you at all." They began carrying her together.

"Where are Aqua and Toxica?"

"I don't know. Everyone was just running to catch up to each other, and I do believe we all got separated in the process..."

"Boreas..." muttered Febby. "Tell Esper I love him... And wish we had had more time together..."

It pained Boreas to see Febby like this, so he made sure they moved her extra fast. "Don't say things like that, Feb, you're not going to die today. You're going to have time enough to talk to tell Esper that yourself, because you're not going to die until you're really old."

"A-and, love Aqua... Forever... I hope you'll both live happily ever after together..."

Boreas felt tearful, hearing Febby so fatalistic; it made him realise even if they got her to White, she would likely not make it anyway: her wounds seemed far too severe for potions to be much help.

As they turned the corner, an infernal battle waited. Elesa, White, and what was left of their teams were in a fighting retreat against Salamence, Charizard, Camerupt, and Arcanine. White was wounded herself, bloodied and clutching one arm as if broken, but instantly came to Febby's aid, and then lifted her up with her one working arm as Rood's pokémon advanced on.

Boreas and Octa joined the battle, but it didn't seem to change much: Salamence was just too strong.

"Boreas!" Esper was fighting next to him. "What happened to Febby? Will she be alright?!"

Boreas genuinely felt sorry for him. "That Ninetales got her... I don't know if she'll be alright, she was very badly wounded. She-she said she loves you, and wishes you'd had more time together..."

"Oh no, oh no, oh no," said Esper panicky, "I don't know what I'd do without her, I couldn't live like that..."

They were driven out of one of the building's exits: this one led only to a large balcony looking out over the power portions of the castle. They were trapped. From their high vantage point, they could see the resistance losing everywhere. Many were closed in by far larger groups, others were already running away.

"Ahh," said Rood, as he emerged onto the balcony behind his pokémon. "Now dat's a view I wouldn't miss even for dis rain. Team Plasma's final victory is at hand, Gym Leader. It's such a shame to have to kill you all, but your interference is too dangerous to be allowed..."

With that, Rood's pokémon attacked. Charizard flew at them, about to spit fire, so Boreas blew it wildly off its course and made it hit Camerupt. Right at that moment, Arcanine pounced him, but found its claws parried by Octa's Leaf Blade. As Octa engaged the Arcanine, Boreas Ice Beamed the Charizard's wings as it came over again, causing it to crash on the balcony, where Boreas jumped on its back and began Ice Beaming the back of its skull.

But an impact of Charizard's heavy, flaming tail threw Boreas off the dragon's back and set his paw on fire again: he landed in a sideways roll that extinguished his paw, but then Charizard opened its maw and a huge inferno shot towards Boreas – and met with a bright green beam of light from Octa that dispersed the flames with its sheer energy before they reached Boreas.

Charizard roared in fury and spit fire at Octa instead, and Octa fired another energy beam: the fire and the beam met in the middle between them. Boreas saw Arcanine rushing for Octa, enveloped in flame, and made sure he got there first, enveloped in a snowstorm, taking both the brunt of the impact and hurting Arcanine almost as badly. It was on its feet first, however, and pounced Boreas in blind rage. Only for its throat to meet with Octa's blade instead.

"Thanks, my dear fellow," said Boreas in surprise, before chuckling as he realised Octa's idioms were finally beginning to rub off on him.

"No problem at all," Octa smiled. "After all, you-"

Boreas threw Octa aside and created a powerful pulse of cold, protecting both of them from the worst of Charizard's Flamethrower. Octa fired a Solarbeam at it, and it actually retreated. Boreas laughed, but Octa directed his attention to the left. "'Tis not over yet."

Salamence had defeated or killed most of White and Elesa's teams by now, only Esper and a Luxray still standing against it. Salamence turned its attention to Boreas and Octa as Charizard sat back and protected Rood instead. Boreas Ice Beamed the dragon, and it roared in pain and rampaged towards him, completely ignoring Luxray and Apollo attacking it, and even Octa getting in its path and stabbing into it was simply thrown out of the way with a single paw.

The metres-tall dragon rampaged towards Boreas, further attacks only making it angrier, and attacked him, thrusting its huge, sharply jawed head towards him. Boreas jumped out of the way just in time, but the impact next to him was like a meteor strike. Boreas was showered in shards of stone and thrown back, but Salamence wasn't even fazed by the incredible impact and tried to crush him with a claw. Boreas rolled away from yet another Earth-shaking impact by the mighty dragon, and ran back to the others.

Things were looking very bleak, as Salamence and Camerupt were together stronger than the rest of them, and the battle was going incredibly poorly for the rest of the resistance. But suddenly, down in the lower parts of the castle, a brilliant white-green light shone through the storm. The fighting stopped for a moment as all looked to see what this strange green Sun in the storm could be. Boreas squinted, and saw it wasn't a single source of light, but a whole cluster of them, shining brilliantly like green stars, and a single blue one.

Octa was teary-eyed with joy. "'Tis my family... The house of Equinox has come!"

–

AUTHOR'S NOTES: A lot of people found last chapter a lot sillier and lighter than they'd expected. That's in part because it was intended to be that way, and in part because it just turned out a bit sillier than I planned. The reason it was like that, is of course to provide a bit of relief before the real, much darker, meat of the battle, and to prevent its events from messing up the tone of this chapter's events. At one point in my planning, these two were actually a single chapter, which would clearly have suffered from some severe mood whiplash.

Killing off Black was hard, though not as hard as Capella. Though he hasn't been a very major character, he's been there since the beginning and always led the team well.

Incidentally, I've opened up a Tumblr thingie where you can ask questions to Boreas and my other characters. I'm not sure how many I'll answer, it's a funny experiment more than anything, but your questions are welcome at askboreasandtheothers dot tumblr dot com

FEEDBACK: Ananon: Q: And the fact that they got married during this giant battle was... really funny, actually.

A: Why, thank you. The final part needs some cute silliness like this, trust me.

TheGlaceonFanatic: Q: It was really amusing how you did the battles, how a lot of things turned to their advantage coincidentally xD I really like your humor!

A: Thanks you. I suppose it only makes sense, with hundreds of attacks flying around, that luck would play a big role in this.

Q: I would personally liked a bit more dialogue from Reshiram, but I guess that legendaries don't say a lot in general...

A: Yeah, I'm basically treating its dialogue a little like Babylon 5 treats the Vorlons' dialogue, with it saying little, and what it says is rather inhuman (though not enigmatic like the Vorlons).

Q: Other than that, I would just like to say it again; your story is amazing! I really like all the elements you've included in it so far, and you're doing a great job using them to surprise your readers with all kinds of emotions and thoughts depending on what it is.  
>Your balance with dialogue and descriptions is good, as well the events you decided to include. It's written very well, with all the hints, characters, battles, romance, description and a lot of things :)<p>

Probably doesn't mean a lot just from another reader, but I really love your story! :'D Can't wait for next chapter!

A: Of course it means a lot; hearing such things is wonderful.

Groudonkid: Q: This is one of the best written stories that I've found on this site so far. I'm quite pleased to find someone who seems to put as much effort into pokemon as I do. Having made that clear, I hope that you do not conclude that Im in any way disapprove of your writing style, or am attempting to gouge holes in your logic, from what I'm about to write.  
>Usually I don't write a review until I've read the complete collection of what i happen to be viewing at the time. But an error is burning its way into the back of my skull and refuses to be ignored. You brought up the interesting topic of what the inside of a pokeball is like for the captured pokemon, and then proceeded to use the "sentient energy" theory that several other writers are quite fond of. While I appreciate that it was a great oppurtunity to introduce "teleporter death", that theory is in stark contrast to previous details you included earlier in the story. In the first two encounters with the seven sages, Boreas attempts to break the opening mechanism on the pokeballs and thus even the odds. During these scenes you wrote that the pokemon could be seen within. This is still possible if the pokeball projects an image of the captured pokemon on it's surface. However, you then went on to say that the camerupt (the pokemon you depicted inside the first ball) shook in rage as it was successfully trapped within. This would mean that the pokeball is see-through and pokemon residing inside are completely aware of the outside, an improbable task while transformed into a mass of energy as you depicted them in this chapter (22).<p>

A: Well, the reason for this inconsistency is that the inside of a pokéball is very difficult to imagine what it's like. If this story wasn't set in a place where their existence is so very much established, I would have ignored them entirely. In the early chapters of the fic, I hadn't thought of an explanation for how they worked, and just had them look from the outside like the pokéballs in the Pokémon Adventures manga. By chapter 22, I had no choice but to portray the inside of a pokéball, as Boreas had actually mentioned he'd been in one on route 4 back in chapter 1. Therefore I made up something that didn't seem entirely unreasonable on the fly. However, I don't see it as a huge inconsistency; with the huge amounts of magic the pokéball is performing anyway, it seems a small trick to just project a physical form of the pokémon inside, including any emotions it might feel. And similarly, the pokémon inside might not literally see what's going on outside, but the pokéball could still somehow give it information of what was going on, particularly potentially dangerous things like the ball being damaged.


	74. Children of Equinox

Chapter Seventy-Four: Children of Equinox

Lord Publius Cornelius, leader of the house of Equinox, looked upon the battle, and the combatants looked back in surprise, momentarily pausing their fighting. Several pokémon and trainers of the resistance had been fleeing, but some of them took heart in the appearance of the house of Equinox and stopped, while others used the opportunity to escape. The resistance clearly wasn't doing very well. "Brittanicus, Livia," he said, "we split our forces in three, you two take the flanks; I shall take the centre. We attempt to outflank as many enemies as we can."

"Father," warned his son Gaius, "there are too many for us to achieve victory. Besides, remember why we are here: not to perish in a battle that has already been decided."

Publius did remember why they had come: the moment Gaius had returned with the news of Octa leaving their house, Publius had immediately left to convince his son to reconsider. Most of the family had joined him, of course: even Gaius had returned with them. None of them wanted to lose Octa. Aurora Invicta, now leader of the house of Quintillus, had joined them with a few of her kin. "I know," Publius raised his voice, addressing the almost four dozen of those with him. "Equinoctes, we came here to give aid to one of our own in undoing his error, but he requires aid of a different nature now! He is not the only one: all those who fight Team Plasma now depend upon us! 'Tis true, I'm afraid: they are losing this battle, which means they require the valour of Equinox even more! Do we turn back in dishonour, let Team Plasma go victorious, and leave those who fight for justice and freedom to die alone while our magnificent ancestors twist in their graves in shame?!"

Lord Publius held out his Leaf Blade and slowly charged up a Solarbeam, letting his entire body glow with it as a battlecry. Those he addressed began to do the same one by one. Even Gaius joined in and began organising a dozen of them as lord Publius continued. "Or do we fight?! We shall do battle, for Equinox and honour, no matter the odds! We shall fight those who oppose civilisation itself and bring honour worthy of our ancestry to ourselves! Fight now! Fear death nor darkness, for we are children of Equinox!" Lord Publius turned his attention to the flabbergasted enemies, who had regrouped in face of these forty Servines and Serperiors, all glowing brightly with sunlight by now. "FOR OCTA!"

They charged their foes, blade in hand, striking them down by all firing their Solarbeams before they clashed with the endless ranks of the enemy.

–

The light of the house of Equinox washing over their enemies down below like a wave of light was brilliant, like the Sun had risen in the middle of the dark storm. Realising they had all stopped fighting to watch the spectacle, Boreas snapped out of his reverie and climbed up on the back of Salamence's neck. As it noticed him and began bending its spine wildly to try and shake him off, he sent pulses of cold into its head and throat.

With Boreas keeping the dragon busy, Octa managed to stab it in the side, but was thrown away by a powerful claw immediately. Salamence was momentarily immobilised as it mentally repelled Esper, allowing Boreas to regain his grip on its neck and climb up further to its head, holding on to the spikes there. Esper staggered back at his contact with the powerful draconic mind, but Altaïr the Luxray quickly took his place and zapped the dragon. Boreas was slightly shocked too, but its resistant body had already absorbed most of the electricity.

Salamence roared and hit Altaïr with a white beam as Boreas Ice Beamed its thick skull from behind. He kept his attack up in the hopes of knocking Salamence out or killing it, but it began rocking its entire neck and head back and forth rapidly to get him off. He tried to hold on, but one paw was loosened, and then he didn't have enough grip any more and flew off, hurtling over the balcony's edge. He made the storm blow him back with a mighty gust and landed hard on the balcony.

His Ice Beams had had their effect, though: Salamence was dazed and dizzy with its brain cooled down, having much trouble fighting Octa, Esper, and Altaïr, as it kept missing them. Boreas rejoined the fight from a distance this time, making the storm into a haily blizzard that struck hardest at Salamence. It spit blazing fire to try and keep itself somewhat warm and was almost completely focussed on that. Octa hit it with an Energy Ball to the face, making it recoil, and then stabbed his blade deep into the dragon's exposed chest.

They panted in exhaustion and victorious exhilaration, until Altaïr said: "Where did Rood go?!"

They looked around, but saw Elesa had caught him personally as he ran away and had knocked him out. It was so easy to just overlook humans in battle. Boreas felt great relief until he remembered Febby. He and Esper rushed for White, who was still administering to her, using potions and stitching her wounds to try to stabilise her enough to return her to her pokéball. White looked sad and panicky, and Boreas felt the same.

"How-" stammered Esper. "How is she?"

White gave him a quick pat as she continued treating the gravely wounded Umbreon. "If I can just stabilise her, she'll be alright... You two can give me a hand..."

Boreas carefully slowed Febby's bleeding while Esper used his powers to check her mental condition. "She's almost gone," he said in horror, "she's in a deep coma... Please, you have to rescue her!"

–

Aqua and Toxica ran through the castle, looking for the others as they ran for the tallest tower. When Lucius, Selene, and Boreas had darted out of the ruined hall, they had all followed, but Aqua and Toxica had gotten caught up in the fighting and fallen too far behind. They had tried to shout to Octa, but he hadn't heard them in the howling winds of the tempest.

The pokémon they were fighting were mainly weak, but there were lots of them and they had slowly become overwhelmed. Then this mysterious green light had shone in the distance, and a lot of the enemies had relocated to a different part of the castle, which allowed the girls more breathing room and eventually let them slip through the enemy lines, leaving a path of beaten foes in their wake.

"D'you think I should forgive Octa?" Toxica suddenly blurted out.

Aqua was taken aback a little, as she'd been thinking about the battle, wondering how wise it was of her to run further into it instead of getting out while she still lived. "Uh- Well, I dunno, I-"

"I mean, he's left his house for me and all, so I think he really is serious that he's chosen me over it. And I know he loves me."

"Umm..." Aqua tried to think of an excuse not to have this conversation. "Well, don't you think this is a bit of a poor time to be having this conversation? We're in a battle here."

Toxica gave her a frowning, sarcastic look. "You just got married in battle, and my duty as best woman was basically keeping the guests off your back so you could actually kiss the groom, so don't accuse me of poor timing."

Aqua laughed. "I suppose you're right. Well, I don't think I can give you advice, because to be honest I don't know what you see in him. But if you really do like him for some reason, then maybe you should take the chance? But if he leaves you again, castrate him."

Toxica stared at her with a flabbergasted look, and Aqua met her gaze trying to keep a straight face. Then they both burst out with laughter so bad they had to stop running. "I-I'll keep that idea- in mihihind!" said Toxica through fits of laughter.

"Be sure to warn him first," Aqua laughed, "that way you'll be sure he really does want to get back together."

"Oh, hi, darling," played Toxica, "I've thought about it and want to date you again, and oh by the way, if you let me down I'll-" she trailed off into another fit of laughter.

Aqua was the first to recover. "In all seriousness, though," she said, wiping tears from her eyes, "you know him better than me. If you honestly think he's serious, then go ahead and forgive him."

As Toxica had laughed out too, they resumed their run through the castle. "Thanks. That's not much of an advice, though."

Aqua shrugged. "I know; but I can't really give any better than 'follow your heart'. You're looking at the wrong person for sage wisdoms, or just any advice better than what you could've thought of yourself."

"I guess... By the way, which way do we take?" asked Toxica, but the maze of corridors they were in eluded Aqua too.

"I dunno," she said. "I can faintly hear the wind in that direction, though, so that'll be a way out."

They decided to follow the faint sound of the wind Aqua heard, and eventually ended up on a large balcony with many dark burned spots. Aqua jumped with joy and ran faster when she saw her husband – it _really_ felt good to think of him as that. She was planning to pounce-hug him, but she saw his grieving face as White returned a pokémon between them to its pokéball and broke to a halt, approaching him more gently. She sat down next to him and softly huddled against him. Boreas startled, then gently embraced her, crying slightly.

"It's... It's Febby, Aqua... She's-" his voice broke.

Aqua hugged and supported him, suddenly feeling rotten for acting nasty to the Umbreon earlier in her euphoria. After a while, Boreas let go of her, his grief gone and replaced with determination. "Come, my love," he said, "I've lost enough friends today. It's time we ended this."

Boreas' voice was calm, but full of a conviction harder than steel that inspired Aqua and dispelled her last considerations of flight. "Alright," she said as they stood up. "But we'll do it together. No running off this time."

"Indeed," said Octa, joining them. "The sacrifices made today shan't be in vain."

"Well?" said Toxica. "Let's go get them, then!"

"White," asked Elesa, "are your pokémon well enough to continue?"

White nodded. "Febby will remain in stasis in her pokéball, so if she has any hope of survival left she at least won't get any worse... Don't you think we should wait for Black, though?"

"I think something bad may have happened to Black, if his pokémon are here all alone without him."

–

Lucius lashed out at the grass-types with the blazing inferno around him, cursing under his breath at being so outnumbered. "Stupid crazy birdbrain, you were supposed to make sure those other idiots kept up with me!"

Selene sat on his shoulder and fired bolts of darkness and knife-sharp waves of air through his flames at their enemies. "Sorry, my telepathy doesn't work well in a crowd, so I had no idea that's what you wanted."

Lucius jumped into his own flames, throwing Selene off to fly for herself, as Cradily spit a barrage of rocks into their original position. Lucius punished it with a Flamethrower, but wished he could get closer to personally rip off its tentacles. "If it wasn't for your stupidity, we wouldn't be outnumbered seven-to-two now! Or I should say seven-to-one-and-a-half, since you've only got half a mind to begin with."

"Well, surely your obvious genius counts for seven, allowing us to outnumber them?" asked Selene as she nimbly dodged aerial attacks.

"Hey! Quit mocking me!"

Lucius had sprinted for the tower, his thirst for revenge speeding him up. He had no way of knowing the others had had stupid for breakfast and lost him. Maybe Aqua had finally shown her true colours and turned against them? Lucius didn't know, and didn't care; even when he had found himself taking the wrong turns and going to a different part of the castle, because he had seen Ryoku fighting there, his Garchomp obliterating pokémon with every attack. Of course he had tried to kill the thin Sage; one revenge was as good as the other. But he had found himself outnumbered and outmatched, even though these were only grass types. He was lucky Garchomp was busy with other enemies.

The circle of intense flames around them protected Lucius and Selene from their enemies, most of which had to get within physical range to attack, while allowing them to counterattack. The flames also made it so warm not that much rain fell on them.

"Anyway," boasted Lucius, "you're probably right. I can handle these idiots, with a little help from you. Fire beats grass any day."

"Not if you're trying to choose what to sow a football field with," said Selene, using a gust of wind to blow fire on Exeggutor. "Sowing a field with fire is a complete mess."

"Shut your beak, you crazy b- Oh crap!" The Garchomp leapt into the air and flew rapidly at them with its wing-like arms, straight through the fire.

–

"Diego, my spare mantle please."

Diego helped Ghetsis put on the long black cloak over his dark clothes, as the human's injured right arm prevented him from doing so himself. "Thank you," he said, looking at himself in the long mirror he'd had brought to the throne room. "A pity that Houndoom managed to get close enough to damage my robes, I rather liked them. But I don't suppose torn robes are very fitting for an Emperor's first address to his people."

"No," smiled Diego, "I suppose they aren't. So when will you make your address?"

Ghetsis walked over to the throne. "Once the battle is won and the resistance crushed. I'll tell the people of Unova all about them cowardly murdering N and how we made them pay for it, and how I will rule in N's name and all that."

Diego curiously felt no regret when Ghetsis mentioned N's death. It already felt like something that had happened to someone else. In a way it had. He had been in such mental turmoil, but his decision was made now. There was no turning back, as nothing could return N, and that made things so much easier. His loyalty was to his true friend, Ghetsis. After all, Ghetsis' arm and eye had been permanently wounded rescuing a young Zorua long ago. He had had nothing but loyalty for the human ever since he'd saved Diego's little sister at great personal peril, loyalty that soon grew into friendship.

Ghetsis looked at N's throne with disdain. "I know they wanted to make something impressive that would appeal to the boy and help him think he really was the king... But couldn't they have made this a little less overdone?"

Diego shrugged. "Don't you want an impressive throne to convey imperial power?"

"Power should speak for itself, not be shown off with ridiculous golden thrones. I don't imagine a golden chair sits well anyway."

Diego hadn't thought of that yet. "I guess not."

He was beginning to get a little sick of this talk of clothes and chairs, though; the battle raging outside intrigued him far more. He didn't want to be cooped up in here while their final victory was won. He wanted to personally kill some of the idiots who thought they could beat Team Plasma. Diego wondered why the resistance was even fighting at all, outnumbered as they were. Were they really so blind they couldn't see there was no way they could win? Most of all, he had unfinished business with Boreas and Aqua. He wanted to finally fix the mistake he'd made in Opelucid Gym, that he hadn't been able to right in front of N while wrecked with self-doubt. He wanted to see the light leave Boreas' eyes, to sever his last tie with "Zeph" and destroy a potentially dangerous enemy in one move.

"Are you sure you don't want to join the battle again?" he asked hopefully.

"I told you, my friend," said Ghetsis, "I've fought enough for one day, and I don't want my new imperial robes ruined as well. That's why I had Giallo take my team instead in the first place."

"I see," said Diego, trying to hide his disappointment.

"However," said Ghetsis with a smile, "I'll ask Giallo to send one of the Kyurems back here instead to be my personal bodyguard, so you can join the battle."

"Thank you!" Diego exclaimed happily.

"You're welcome, my friend. But be careful, please."

–

They walked through the empty parts of the castle behind enemy lines. The four members of Black's team were joined by White, her Braviary, and Esper. Elesa with Altaïr and her Zebstrika was also there: they had left some of their wounded pokémon behind to guard Rood, as they would only endanger themselves more in battle. Their journey to the tallest tower was quiet, as there were no enemies and the tension made them all go silent. Esper especially had changed a lot from the cheery and rather annoying Espeon he normally was.

The tower came closer, and Boreas now recognised where they were: on the path they had followed to the throneroom earlier. He knew after they left the tower they were in, they'd have to cross a big courtyard on the roof of a lower building, go through the building with N's childhood room, up an ascending path on a wall, and then they'd be there.

As Boreas - who walked in front of the troop - entered the courtyard he saw all of Ghetsis' team, and all of sage Giallo's steel-types in it. He jumped back before they saw him, bumping into Altaïr and Aqua. "We've got a problem. Giallo's there, and he's got Ghetsis' team too. There's the two Kyurems, Metagross, Steelix, and Kingdra, just to name a few."

"Piss," cursed Toxica. "At least I guess it means Ghetsis is defenceless if we can get to 'im."

"Other than his cane..." muttered Boreas, remembering the heavy knock on the head he'd received.

After some translation difficulty, Elesa said: "Well, we'll never get through here with all these pokémon guarding the way, so we should turn around and try to find another way to Ghetsis."

"I'm afraid that's not an option," said Octa, "for there were no branching corridors any more past this point, ergo this is the only way to the throneroom."

They contemplated what to do for a moment. "Then all we can do is fight them," decided Boreas. "We don't stand a chance against so many strong enemies, but we have to try and slip past. Anyone who can get behind the enemy makes their way to Ghetsis as fast as they can and kills him. Hopefully before anyone else dies..."

They paused for another moment, gathering their courage. They all realised those who couldn't slip past the enemy would probably not survive against so much power. "All those steel-types... Where is Lucius when you need him? Or any fire-type for that matter?" muttered Octa.

"I don't suppose you could just fly to the tower?" Aqua asked Braviary.

It shook its head. "Not in this storm, the winds are far more dangerous above the ground and make it impossible to fly. I'll try to fly through their line as quick as I can, though."

Boreas grabbed Aqua's paw and kissed her. "Good luck, my love. I'm glad I jumped off that boat last year."

Aqua smiled. "Me too. But don't think you're off the hook yet: I expect you to stay in one piece for the wedding night."

Boreas chuckled. "I'll try to survive if you do."

"Deal."

As they were almost ready to charge into the courtyard, Boreas overheard Toxica whisper to Octa: "I love you."

"I beg your pardon?"

"I said I love you," she repeated. "And I really appreciate what you did for me, leaving your house. I just needed a little more time. I guess now there's probably none left."

"Do not be so pessimistic," Octa said gently, "we may yet make it. You have certainly given me a reason to ensure our survival. We shall yet have our second chance."

They were all ready now. "Good luck, everyone," said Boreas. Then he ran into the courtyard, gathering the storm to him and freezing all the rain to envelop himself in a cloaking hailstorm while some of the others chose to attack the enemy from this distance. It seemed fortune was slightly in their favour, as the white Kyurem had disappeared from the ranks of their enemies and could be seen flying into the tower instead. Unfortunately that meant the chances of anyone making it through actually killing Ghetsis were much lower.

The enemy recovered from their surprise, most barely hurt with their tough metal armour, and counterattacked. Braviary was fried by a mighty bolt of lightning in mid-flight as it tried to pass Kyurem. Boreas managed to dodge another lightning bolt, hidden as he was in the snowstorm. It seemed like he might be able to slip through the enemy ranks until the gigantic Steelix slithered into his path. Boreas jumped into the air and created a powerful upwards gust at the same time, launching himself metres up as a colossal metal tail crashed where he had stood a moment ago.

High in the air, he found Braviary was right: the storm was much stronger and more dangerous here. It was a good thing too, as it blew him out of the way of Steelix's gargantuan jaws snapping at him; however, he put his paws to the side of the iron snake's head and froze them to the wet metal. Steelix tried to shake him off, and Boreas timed his letting go just right so he flipped through the air in a pretty arc and landed on the back of its head instead. Here he had easy access to the thinner armour of its neckjoint, where he began pumping pulses of cold into his behemothic enemy. Steelix screeched ear-piercingly and shook violently all over with pain.

With a speed belying its size Steelix jerked its body up violently, and Boreas didn't freeze himself to it. He was thrown high into the air, tumbling, while Steelix under him opened its titanic maw to catch him with. But Boreas wasn't scared, as everything was going according to plan. He stopped his wild tumbling with a gust of wind so his head pointed downwards to the gaping maw, exposing a fleshy throat and with it Steelix's greatest weak point. Boreas began by firing a few Ice Beams into it, then as it closed its mouth and cringed with pain he aimed some into its eyes for good measure.

Unfortunately the next stage of his plan didn't work out so well: he tried to create upward wind to slow his descent and land softly, but the air simply didn't want to do that. He thought quickly to find a way not to break most of his bones on impact, and luckily Ghetsis' charging Bouffalant volunteered to break his fall as it ran underneath to attack Altaïr. Boreas adjusted the winds to flip him back around with his feet down and to aim himself for the ungulate.

Bouffalant's fluffy head provided a surprisingly soft landing, though Bouffalant didn't find the falling Glaceon's impact to its skull remotely as harmless. It was knocked out almost instantly as Boreas bounced off and landed behind enemy lines with a roll. The wounded Steelix was busy losing to Aqua now, so Boreas knew it was time to proceed to Ghetsis.

His path was instantly blocked as an elephantine metal leg slamming down hard before him along with the entire tank-like creature it was a part of. He tried to defend himself, but a kick by a heavy metal leg knocked him down. The next moment Metagross was upon him, its crushing weight pressing down on his body, creaking his bones. He tried to release a pulse of cold into it, but it barely responded; he fired Ice Beams at its face, but it psychically blinked them out of existence before they hit. Metagross lifted up a solid steel leg and held it above his head, about to crush it like a grape despite Boreas' struggles. It didn't even flinch when a jet of water hit it from far away.

"An Equinox shall never stand alone! Attack!" cried a voice that sounded much like Octa's, distracting Metagross as it brought down its mighty leg, allowing Boreas to barely dodge it by pulling his head to the side. A blue Servine and six Serperiors, one of whom Boreas recognised as Gaius, had just joined the battle. Their leader looked a lot like Gaius too, except older and far more majestic. Another was almost immediately killed by a bright beam from Kyurem. The remaining snakes joined the battle, but unlike Metagross Boreas didn't stop to watch them: he used his enemy's distraction to fire Ice Beams at its eyes. Even in a creature where the eyes are made of metal, they tend to be a vulnerable spot, so the shock of being hit there made Metagross lift up its body in reflex. Boreas instantly rolled away from under it and jumped back to his feet. Metagross tried to Body Slam him with its entire metal mass, but he had jumped up on its head already.

Boreas froze his paws to his enemy, expecting it to try to throw him off, but instead he felt a mighty and alien mind invade his own. Neither will nor anger provided any defence against the sheer force the Metagross' robotic mind had. He was completely powerless, and soon his entire nervous system was on fire as Metagross overloaded it with tremendous amounts of energy. He was in agony and wouldn't last long under the mighty creature's attacks; but the pain stopped soon as Metagross' mind left. Boreas slowly opened his eyes, bright white sparks of pain still flashing in them, and saw Octa, Toxica, and the blue Servine were fighting Metagross, distracting it from killing Boreas. He fell off behind the steel-type and slowly got up. Though the grass-types were fighting three-on-one, they were still losing.

Boreas was about to attack Metagross from behind, but Octa made eye-contact with him, and he could tell clear enough what he wanted to say if it wouldn't alert Metagross Boreas was behind him: _"Don't! Remember our mission, my dear fellow: you are behind the enemy, so go for Ghetsis, for we shan't win this battle either way as long as he lives."_

Boreas gave Octa an almost pleading look: _"But I can't leave you here!"_

Octa's glance was inexorable. _"Yes, you can. Besides, this was your idea. Now go."_

Boreas nodded to his friend, both in agreement and as a goodbye. Octa nodded back. Boreas turned around and walked into the building behind the enemy, turning around one last time: he made brief eye-contact with Aqua and suddenly wanted to turn back. He had promised her they would do this together, after all.

Aqua looked at him, clearly saying something like _"We _are_ doing this together, as we'll provide a distraction. Go on, my love."_

Boreas nodded and they exchanged a smile as goodbye. Boreas wished he didn't have to go, as he had the horrid feeling they wouldn't see each other again.

–

Octa felt great relief as Boreas turned around and left the battlefield. He had feared the Glaceon's emotional nature would get the best of him. "Father," he said as lord Publius too joined the fight against Metagross, "I am honoured by your presence, but-"

"Octa," snapped Lord Publius angrily as a psychic attack knocked Toxica away, "you should not have left our house!"

"But I did, father!" replied Octa as he dodged a crushing, heavy leg. "I have chosen Toxica, and there is nothing you can change about that!"

"Stupid boy!" scolded Lord Publius, making Oct feel like a young Snivy who had accidentally hurt his sister again. "I do not want to change that decision, don't you even remember our conversation on this?! I support you in your choice, and your gratitude is to leave our great house?! _That _is the decision I wish to change!"

"Father, despite your support our house still does not accept my choice; in fact the part of me that considers its traditions holy does not support it! There is an inherent conflict between our house's traditions and my love; therefore the only course of action is to separate them; to separate me from our house."

"Our traditions have changed in the past, and they shall change again. I would much rather change this tradition than lose my son."

"I know, but not all of us agree."

"Indeed we do not," said Gaius as he dodged a great bolt of lightning by Kyurem. "For it is wrong to doubt the wisdom of our illustrious fathers and replace it with lack of traditions that brings us ever closer to commoners. Now we shall _breed_ with them?"

"You forget your place," said Lord Publius. "If Octa wishes to, then yes, he shall."

"No, father. You may be our leader, but I have at least as much support as you, particularly with this débâcle ongoing. And I say it does not happen; therefore it shan't."

–

Boreas walked through the building's long corridor. The sound of battle soon died away behind him. He passed N's childhood room and finally left the building on the other side. There was only the lightly ascending path over the wall left, but it was blocked by an unwelcome presence.

Diego looked as surprised to see him as Boreas was, but then he smiled maliciously and madly, like a hyaena at its prey. "Boreas, I didn't expect to run into you yet. I'm impressed you made it behind our lines, but why are you here?" Understanding dawned on the face Boreas hated so much. "Oh, I see. You're planning to kill Ghetsis to get rid of the Kyurems, right?"

Boreas tried not to react as Diego saw through his plan. If he warned Ghetsis he would surround himself with his team and make it impossible to kill him...

Diego smiled. "There's no point trying to hide it now. It's a bold plan, and explains why your entire resistance rushed into this battle, as it's the only way you stand a chance of victory. But it's not going to work."

"You won't stop me," growled Boreas.

"You've never stood a chance against me," growled Diego. "I'll give you one opportunity to turn back and live. But of course, we both know you won't take it. So, it's time I did what I should've done a long time ago."

"I was about to say the same thing," replied Boreas. "You've made your final victim."

"To the death, then."

–

AUTHOR'S NOTES: The arrival of the house of Equinox at the beginning of the chapter was of course inspired by the beautiful moment in the Lord of the Rings when the Rohirrim arrive at the battle of the Pellenor Fields and written with the appropriate music playing. ( youtube dot com slash watch?v=F8oqZ7SJN_8&list=PL7E244C3BF01D37CE&index=33 )

Incidentally, something to keep in mind during these chapters is that even if things seem to be going pretty well since Boreas and his friends are beating a lot of enemies, they are the very strongest pokémon on the resistance's side, being the Champion's (until he died last chapter, at least). Alder's team is close, but the rest is all significantly weaker, and there are plenty of very weak ones among them. So even though they beat quite many enemies and several Sages, the resistance as a whole is badly outclassed by Team Plasma. (Remember the Elite Four joined them too)

Sylveon. As an Eevee-lover, I will _really_ have to get used to this far too Clefairyish new Eeveelution, but maybe it'll grow on me. It looks to be normal type, though its name could be either from Latin silva, forest, or Norwegian sylv, silver. As far as this story is concerned, incidentally, generation VI pokémon including Sylveon don't exist; not because I don't like them but because it would feel odd to go back and edit references to seven Eeveelutions to eight. And because a ninth might yet be unveiled later and require more changing.

Incidentally, I've got some great news: The Surprising Adventures of a Glaceon in Unova has won _four_ Winter Awards in the Bulbagarden Writer's Workshop! They are: best journeyfic, best supporting character (Toxica), best antagonist (Diego), and best character overall (Toxica).

But enough talk, the sooner I get to writing the fifth and final battle between Boreas and Diego, the better.

FEEDBACK: TheGlaceonFanatic: Q: AHA! I knew it! I knew it! You killed Black! You really have a thing for killing others, don't you?

A: It seems so.

Q: I like how you made the last chapter silly, making this "surprise" more "shocking", I guess.

A: Hehe, that's one of the reasons 72 was so silly indeed, to make 73 more shocking. It's just as much because I enjoy writing silly things too, and to be able to mostly keep silliness out of the rather serious rest of the final battle. And just because the idea of building up to a dangerous and climactic final battle in 71 and then switching to silliness next chapter amused me.

Q: The battles were great and descriptive, and I especially like the one with Kingdra.

A: That was fun to write. I do enjoy putting Boreas into horrible situations, much though I like him. And ever since Clair's Kingdra destroyed me time and again in Silver, I've considered that a very powerful and slightly scary pokémon. I suppose the abundance of villainous Kingdras in this story despite how awkward I find water-types to write shows it.

Q: I don't know if I've commented on this before, but it wonders me that Black doesn't give any commands, at all(I think)! It makes it different, but in a good way, since it's from first person, kinda, which makes it more descriptive since you can tell their feelings etc.

A: Well, on rare occasions he does give a command. But you're right, he mostly doesn't. The reason for it is of course simply that this story focusses on the pokémon, no the trainer. In a story with a trainer as main character, you don't want them standing idly by during the battles eating out of their nose, so you have the trainer decide everything their pokémon do, because the alternative is no fun. Similarly, when a pokémon is the main character you don't want them to just be marionettes of the trainer in battle, but to decide what to do themselves.

Q: I also like how you make him fight for himself. It's exciting sometimes, since a very small amount of people does it, plus making it more original, somehow...

A: I'm glad you like it; while I don't have him fight often I do enjoy a chance to have Black actually fight in battle. Ghetsis also defended himself last chapter, knocking Boreas out with his cane, so it seems to have been rather big on trainer self-defence.

Q: I'm not sure if I've said this either, but your word choice for the characters are somewhat... limited. I think you overuse their names sometimes. Though, it makes it easy to read, but it gets a bit too repeating now and then. It's a minor problem, but I thought I should mention it anyway.

A: Thanks; I tried harder than normal to keep this problem down this chapter.

Q: And interesting ending! Are they charging a combined Solar Beam, or something?

A: More or less; it's both and attack and a "take heart, allies, and fear us, enemies, because we're the house of Equinox and we're here to fight!" kind of signal. It was inspired by the beautiful scene in the Lord of the Rings when the Rohirrim arrive at the battle of the Pellenor Fields and the sound of a horn heralds their arrival. I struggled a little with what sound signal they could send (since a horn doesn't fit them, but neither does any other instrument), before realising it was light I was looking for in their case, not sound.

LemondoughnutPXC: Q: I really like the way Boreas is telling the story to Aqua as their relationship develops :P

A: I'm surprised how well that turned out myself, allowing me to develop the relationship between them in a very short amount of time without just spamming five or six romantic chapters in a row in the middle of the story, giving Boreas clear presence as a Glaceon even in the chapters where he's an Eevee, and giving some structure to the more random early chapters, considering it was a pretty spontaneous idea brought by a combination of not knowing how to start at the beginning and seeing a cute Vaporeon fanart that inspired me for Aqua as a character.

Q: Hehe. Sixty-nine.

A: ಠ_ಠ

Q: After 3 days, I finally caught up :D this is a great fic, and I can't wait to find out what happens next!

A: You got through the archive very fast, congrats. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Gigolo von Spicypants: Q: Damn. You're just handing out deaths like Oprah gives out prizes.

A: Well, technically no named character died this chapter, as Febby is still hanging on to a shred of life in her pokéball. I'd better make up for that soon if I want to hit a higher bodycount than this part has chapters.

Sonosublime: Q: These lines were gold.

A: Hehe, thanks.

Q: I really liked this chapter. Boreas and Aqua getting married was cheesy but awesome. I especially liked her raising the water around them and Boreas freezing it. Very symbolic.

A: Glad you liked it. It seems symbolic, beautiful, and a good way to prevent them from getting killed while kissing (which would put a bit of a damper on that scene's mood, really).

Decimator1337: Q: Fantastic. I enjoyed the story very much so far, despite never playing any of the games. I even had to look them up on the wiki to get a better picture of them (your descriptions helped much).

A: It's great to hear someone who hasn't played the games still reads my story. May I ask how you found it?

Q: Now that the great House of Equinox is here, it won't be long before victory!... will it?

A: Yes, it will be. The house of Equinox aren't with nearly enough to simply change the tide of the battle. But they did change it from a hopeless massacre to giving the resistance a small chance of victory through Boreas' plan (a simple standard victory is still completely impossible). However, you likely know this by now after reading this chapter anyway.


	75. To the Death

Chapter Seventy-Five: To the Death

The storm raged around them as Boreas replied: "Yes. I swore I'd kill you when you hung me from the Ferris wheel by my tail, and I was an idiot to ever relent in that. You're evil through and through." He carefully took a step back, as he didn't want to fight so close to his much stronger enemy.

"You're indeed an idiot if you think I'm the one who'll end up dead here." Diego cautiously took a diagonal step forward.

Boreas realised Diego was trying to get into the building behind him to prevent having to fight in the storm, which was an advantage to Boreas, so he sidestepped and blocked Diego. "Am I?" asked Boreas, trying to buy some time. "I survived all our previous battles, you know."

Diego laughed unpleasantly as he took a step in the other direction, only to be blocked by Boreas again. "Only because I didn't want to kill you. In Nimbasa you weren't important, so I let you live out of simple kindness. In Icirrus, my plan was to infiltrate your team, not to kill you. And this morning, I let you live because N was there, and he had enough doubts already."

A ball of fire suddenly flashed in the corner of Boreas' eye, shooting towards him. In a reflex he ducked, even as he realised it was a mistake. Diego dived past him at the very same moment; Boreas quickly twisted around to have his face to the Zoroark, who was now much closer to the relative safety of the building. But they didn't fight yet: Diego was still too exposed and Boreas too close to his enemy to want to start. "So what about Opelucid?" Boreas cautiously walked backwards as he talked. "Why didn'tyou kill me there?"

Diego seemed uncomfortable with the question. He slowly walked backwards too: neither of them dared to turn their back on their enemy nor walk backwards faster, because if they tripped the other would win with barely a fight. "A mistake," he finally admitted. "I had spent so much time pretending to be Zeph I had become used to it, and in a moment of confusion felt compassion for you. But it won't happen again. I have dealt with that weakness by dealing with N. You'll get what Team Plasma's enemies deserve."

Boreas had actually suspected something like that. He gathered the storm to him, cloaking himself in hail and snow. "What you call weakness, others would call having a heart. You're bad to the bone, and deserve death."

Their duel began as Diego reached the building: Boreas fired several Ice Beams at him, content he was at a safe distance by now. However, darkness swallowed all of them with a wave of Diego's paw. Boreas had to dodge a dark beam, and then created a powerful icy wind to freeze Diego with. But the Zoroark retreated into the building. "I'll just go tell Giallo of your little plan so he can protect Ghetsis!"

Boreas cursed. It was obviously a trap, yet he couldn't just run off and kill Ghetsis: with white Kyurem protecting him, that'd take a lot of skill and guile; and he just wouldn't have the time if Giallo could arrive at any moment. He sprinted after Diego, cloaked tightly in icy winds to at least give him a chance to dodge the Zoroark's inevitable ambush. He sent the winds in ahead of him to curl around the perimeter of the door, where Diego was most likely hiding behind, waiting to break Boreas' skull. Then he sprinted inside, turning to the right immediately, gambling Diego was on that side.

He wasn't, though; and neither was he on the left. Realising where he was, Boreas rushed away just in time for the Zoroark's heavy foot to land on his shoulder instead of his head as he dropped from above. He was slammed hard to the ground, but as Diego went for the kill he rolled under him, dodging the Zoroark's foot trying to crush his head and Ice Beaming him in the crotch. As Diego howled in pain and folded double, Boreas grabbed him by the head and pumped a pulse of cold right through his brain. But then severe pain filled Boreas as a sharp kick broke at least one of his ribs and threw him clear of his nemesis.

Boreas managed to jump to his feet despite the agony in his side and rapidly took a few steps back, away from the enraged Zoroark. But Diego put out his hands and before Boreas could do more than be surprised, arcs of lightning hit him, his flesh feeling on fire wherever they hit. He screamed in pain and wished only for it to end. He had experienced many types of pain by now, but this sheer agony might just be the worst. It went on and on, and when the torment ended at last, Boreas' body and mind needed to recover. But there was no time, as he could hear Diego running towards him, planning to end his life. Boreas rolled onto his side and froze the ground before Diego, making him trip and fall on the back of his head. They were both left lying on the ground recovering.

"That... Always works," panted Boreas triumphantly. "But Zoroarks can't even learn electric attacks... How did you do that?!"

Rubbing the bleeding back of his head as he slowly got up, Diego said: "Electricity? Just because it looks like electricity doesn't mean it is."

No electricity, then. Boreas realised the lightning had only brought pain, but hadn't made his muscles spasm nor burnt him; maybe it was some kind of dark attack intended to cause agony to its victims. As Diego put out his arms again, Boreas instinctively froze his fur down to a reflective coat. When the strange lightning hit again, it was still agonising, but also reflected back to Diego, who quickly stopped as he screamed in his own lightning.

"Got anything better than fake lightning?" Boreas taunted.

"Yes," Diego grinned. "Real fire." He breathed a blazing ray of flames. Boreas dived into the room to his side to dodge the fire, and found himself in N's room. Boreas quickly cooled down the air in the large room full of toys and began forming a storm as he rushed for cover behind N's large, curtained bed. When Diego appeared in the door, Boreas threw a model train lying about, accelerating it with a strong icy gale to hit Diego like a comet. The Zoroark stood absolutely still when he saw the train speeding towards him, and knocked it to pieces with a perfectly timed chop of the arm just before he was hit.

"Come now, Boreas, aren't you too old to play with toys?" Diego mocked as he walked into the room. Boreas focused his small storm's full intensity on Diego now that he had no cover at all, using the full extent of his ice powers, which unleashed a huge cloud of mist that obscured the Zoroark for a few moments.

"Completely ignoring cover?" mocked Boreas as his view of Diego being pelleted by the rain of liquid air returned. "I thought you were smarter than this."

Diego tried to continue on, but was rapidly freezing in the intense Blizzard, stumbling to his knees. Boreas was rapidly getting exhausted, but unleashed all his anger in the Blizzard, relishing the chance to finally give payback to Diego. The Zoroark's eyes froze over, and much of his skin was showing severe signs of frostbite as he finally collapsed completely. Boreas panted victoriously.

_Too easy, way too easy!_ Warned a voice in his head, and at that moment his saw something big move fast from the corner of his eye and dived under the bed, receiving only a kick like the impact of a heavy mallet on his thigh instead of being entirely grappled by the huge Zoroark.

"Guess what?!" Laughed the Zoroark triumphantly as Boreas scurried away under the bed despite being teary-eyed with pain from his leg and side now. "I am!"

Boreas weakly Ice Beamed Diego's foot, too exhausted by the Blizzard he'd wasted on an illusion to do much more right now. He knew the Zoroark would probably throw the bed over soon, which would give Boreas a few seconds to either fight or flee, as it was toobig and heavy even for Diego to do so easily. But he did no such thing; he just stood there as Boreas breathed rapidly to regain his stamina, racing his brain to try and think what devilish scheme Diego might be up to this time. He felt very warm with exhaustion and his breathing barely seemed to offer relief. In fact, as some time passed, both got worse and worse. _That bastard set the bed on fire!_ He suddenly thought and moved to scurry out from under the bed on the side opposite of Diego's feet. However, he changed his mind and went towards Diego's feet instead, confident they were illusions and Diego was actually waiting on the other side to kill him the moment he emerged.

His suspicions both turned out to be right: the bed was ablaze and Diego was on the other side of it, standing atop one of the chairs so his real feet couldn't be seen before. Boreas blew the fire on the bed with a strong wind, igniting Diego's arm. He yelled in pain and surprise and rolled over the floor while Boreas quickly climbed on top of one of the tall bookcases, gave a strong push against the wall, and jumped off onto another one as it fell. Unfortunately Diego was too quick and wasn't crushed by the bookcase as Boreas intended. He jumped off the new bookcase to dodge the Flamethrower aimed for him that ignited it, and hit Diego in the throat with an Ice Beam.

The larger fox collapsed, choking and clutching his throat, and Boreas jumped onto him, planning to finish it. But there was a flash of darkness just before he landed, his entire body flared with pain, and then an impact like a meteor to his stomach punched him away; he landed hard, model train tracks digging into his back and feeling dreadfully nauseous. Diego and Boreas both got up slowly, hurt badly. The entire room was wrecked by now, and most of it was on fire.

"How appropriate for you to ruin this room," spat Boreas, "since it's where you ruined N's life with your brainwashing!"

Diego growled. "And what do you know about it? Nothing! I educated N to be our weapon, yes, but I always did so with kindness and friendship. N had everything he could ever wish for!"

"Except freedom!" snapped Boreas. "He was a sentient being, not a tool for you to use, no matter how many excuses you think you have!"

"N would never even have lived without us, have you considered that? He was born only because Ghetsis needed a 'hero'. Since Team Plasma gave him life, his service as our tool was just repayment. And he even failed at that task!"

"Every time I think there might be some good deep within you, you once again show me the monster I've sworn to kill far too many times."

"Enough talk! I will enjoy seeing the light leave your eyes, Boreas!"

–

Octa was beginning to realise everything depended on Boreas. When a few of his family had managed to break through and joined them against Giallo, he had had hope the might of Equinox might actually bring them victory, or allow others to get behind enemy lines as well. But after the enemy's surprise wore off, they became very deadly once again. They would have stood some chance against Ghetsis' and Giallo's normal teams, but Kyurem and Metagross were terribly powerful. He had already seen two distant relatives get instantly frozen to the bone and then shattered by Kyurem's sheer power. Octa and his father were now fighting Kyurem together, leaving Metagross to Aqua and Toxica.

It was as if they were no more than annoying insects to the legendary, their every attack a hindrance at best, while Kyurem's were utterly devastating to them. They fought for their lives and those of everyone else, but could do little more than keeping it busy.

Kyurem's claw came for Octa, wreathed in deadly cold energy as he stabbed it ineffectively in the leg, but Kyurem flinched as it was hit by a powerful Energy Ball and Octa managed to barely dodge the lethal attack. It wasn't his father who had saved him, however, but his sister Livia, who was fighting Scizor.

Octa decided to help her defeat it, as it seemed they could with the two of them. "Thank you."

"You're welcome, brother," she replied as she parried Scizor's great claw with her blade. "Glad I get a chance to talk to you. Do we have any plan here, or is this a heroically doomed battle?"

"I do hope it's the first," said Octa as he stabbed his blade through a small crack in the insect's armour; he had already explained the plan to their father, so he repeated it briefly to Livia as they fought Scizor together.

"I see," summarised Livia as she nimbly dodged an attack. "So all we've got to do is keep our opponents busy so your friend can kill Ghetsis, if he somehow makes it past this other Kyurem?"

"Indeed," said Octa. "I know 'tis unlikely, but it seems to be our best hope. Besides, my friend is sharper than most."

Octa saw their chance and wildly attacked Scizor time and again, forcing it to focus on him, which allowed Livia to take advantage of the cracks in its armour and stab her blade deep into it. "I do not doubt it; 'tis still unlikely, but fighting for a good cause at unlikely odds is the duty of any Equi- of any good person," she corrected herself.

Octa nodded. "Thanks. You do not oppose my decision then?" he asked as they slithered back to Kyurem, firing Energy Balls at it.

"Of course not, brother. I-" she had to dodge a huge Ice Beam, "-consider Toxica a friend, and could imagine no better choice for you to make. I do wish some pig-headed idiots wouldn't get all worked up about it, though. Once this is all over and we all have a chance to talk, I'll help you smooth things out."

Octa was about to thank her again, but something horrifying happened: Lord Publius was hit by a gigantic lightning bolt from Kyurem. They furiously attacked it and rushed over, but it was too late: their father had died instantly from the tremendous shock.

"No!" cried Octa. "Father, no, you can't die!"

He felt agonising loss fill him with despair and fury. Enraged, he stabbed at Kyurem again and again, until it polarised itself so he got such a bad shock on his next stab all his muscles spasmed and he launched himself backwards. As he hit the ground away from Kyurem, he was snapped out of his rage and heard his kin say: "Lord Publius Cornelius is dead!"

As soon as they heard it, most of the house turned to Gaius. "Gaius, what are your orders? What do we do?" they asked, panicky.

Gaius looked at the battlefield with eyes wide-open with shock, looking at his father's corpse and Kyurem killing yet another family member with a single attack. "The day is lost!" he shouted. "There is valour in continuing to fight to the bitter end, but we have a duty towards our House! We cannot throw away our lives that might serve better later! Retreat! Retreat!"

–

The two foxes continued their duel even as the fire spread from N's room and lit much of the building on fire. Boreas' Blizzards only seemed to make the problem worse, as the wind helped the fire spread and the liquid air they produced fuelled the flames greatly. Boreas would have liked to just flee outside, as the fire terrified him and made the air painful to breathe, but he couldn't risk Diego warning Giallo of his plan. He had no choice but to fight wherever Diego chose to. However, even Diego had been forced to flee the burning room by now, and the corridor was rapidly becoming an inferno as well. Boreas fled into another room.

The fire had already spread to this room, but it wasn't entirely ablaze yet. The air was painfully hot as much of the carpet and decorations were burning. There was a balcony with a door to a higher floor and stairs going there, and a long, huge table in the middle of the room that was smouldering already. Diego nimbly jumped through the fire surrounding him, avoiding combustion, and clumsily stumbled into the room as well. Boreas dug his teeth deep into the Zoroark's leg, channelling cold through his mouth, let go and rolled under his opponent to dodge the attack trying to punish him, and Ice Beamed him into the small of the back.

Diego was hurt but not defeated and swirled around angrily, throwing a bolt of darkness at Boreas, which he parried, before spewing more fire at him. Boreas yelped and rolled to extinguish his smouldering fur, and was sent flying by a kick that broke another of his ribs. Standing up quickly as he tried not to let the pain overwhelm him, he saw Diego's terrifying visage as he approached; his dark-furred face twisted with hate and the fires reflecting in his malicious purple eyes. They stood before each other for a moment, then Boreas did what he thought his enemy would least suspect: attack him physically. He pounced the far larger Zoroark and dug his claws deep into the other's chest. Diego yelped in surprise and pain as Boreas drew eight long red cuts in his black fur. He jumped off the very next moment, before he could be grabbed, and ran for the stairs.

An agonising dark bolt hit Boreas from behind and his legs gave way for a moment so he tripped onto the stairs face-down. He rolled over instantly as Diego now ran for him, and Ice Beamed the Zoroark's already bleeding leg. Diego cursed loudly and tripped too; unfortunately right on top of Boreas. Eighty kilos of Zoroark landed on top of him and dug the stairs into his back like blades, crushed the air out of his lungs, made his broken ribs burn even more, and his spine feel near-breaking.

They both tried to recover first and hit the other, but breathing was impossible with his heavy nemesis pressing on his ribcage, so all Boreas could do was cool his body down to hurt Diego. But the Zoroark put both hands to Boreas' throat, ignoring the severe frostbite he incurred in doing so, and squeezed with incredible force. Boreas couldn't breathe at all as his windpipe was crushed, even when Diego shifted his weight off his chest.

"I win again," said Diego with an evil smirk as Boreas tried futilely to unclench his hands. He couldn't die now, when his friends were counting on him! He didn't want the final thing he saw to be his own suffocating reflection in two malicious purple eyes.

_His eyes..._

Boreas stopped struggling against Diego's iron grip on his throat and instead went for his left eye, putting his claw into it. It felt oddly tomato-like as he touched it, pressed hard, and violently tore his claw across Diego's face. Diego screamed in agony as his destroyed eye released a splatter of blood and clutched at his bleeding face with both hands. Boreas drew a breath, restoring his own energy, and blew his enemy away with a violent pulse of cold.

Diego lay on the smouldering ground, screaming and clutching his face as Boreas panted through his crushed throat, working hard for each breath. He tried to get up, but his entire oxygen-starved body protested and barely responded to him; he was only half up by the time his infuriated foe, his face drenched in madness and blood, sprinted at him. "MY EYE! MY EYE! MY EYE!" He cried like a madman. "I'll personally kill all your friends for that, once I'm done with you!"

Boreas didn't have the energy to attack and fled up the stairs, dodging lightning, but his furious enemy followed him. As he neared the top of the stairs, a tremendous impact to the back of his shoulders sent him sprawling. He looked just in time to see Diego's fist coming before it hit his face. In that instant he realised he would need to use an attack, as he would black out anyway, and would be skinned alive if the furious Zoroark wasn't taken care of. He used all his energy for a powerful blast of wind, Diego's fist hit his face with a terrible impact that sent fragments of his teeth flying around in his mouth, and just before his consciousness left he saw the Zoroark falling backwards as the wind blew him away, off the stairs, and hitting the burning table three metres lower on his back. The already weakened table collapsed and Diego disappeared into the burning wreckage as Boreas blacked out.

–

Lucius dodged beams and tried to keep his footing against the shaking Earth as he fought with Garchomp. The great dragon was an incredibly tough opponent, and he and Selene were just being overwhelmed by it. Some resistance guys finally fighting Ryoku's other pokémon at least took them off Lucius' back, but it wouldn't be long before the dragon killed him if this went on.

–

Boreas stumbled through the corridors as fast as he could in his disoriented, concussed state, with his shoulders, face, and a leg hurting very badly. As he had woken up in utter pain and with the world spinning around him, he'd seen Diego rise from the burning rubble that was the table like a furious demon. Parts of his fur had burnt off and showed bad-looking burns under them and one of his arms bled and hung limply, but the Zoroark's one-eyed face was one of pure hate and determination. Boreas knew he could finally risk fleeing from his opponent and taking the battle outside, as there was no way now Diego would just let him walk off while he went and warned Giallo: he would obviously do nothing rather than murder Boreas in the most painful way possible.

But even standing was hard for Boreas, and he'd had to spit out many broken teeth, the salt flavour of blood constantly in his mouth. His face bled at least as badly as Diego's and the world wobbled like a ship in a storm as he made his way through the corridors of the building's upper floor, which weren't burning yet. He hallucinated strange glowing orbs floating past and heard a mumbling noise as he stumbled into a wall. He was very lucky Diego was badly wounded too by his fall on the burning table, slowing him down.

He stumbled through corridors and rooms, looking for an exit, the bloodthirsty Zoroark always in pursuit. At last Boreas found a window, opened it, and climbed through, ending up on the building's roof. The storm had free reign here, making its wet and loose roof tiles even more dangerous. The roof was pretty irregular, with some higher and some lower parts. The strong gale of fresh air at least partially cleared up his mind and made it spin a little less. He could see the great battle being fought far down, as well as the tallest tower. The clouds were dark and boiling, taking on all shades of black, dark blue, and purple. Low in the south, there were brighter and yellower spots, showing the Sun was in fact up.

But he had no time to admire the view as Diego was climbing out of the window too. Boreas added strength to a gust of wind and slammed the window shut hard, making Diego's hand go through its glass. His arm got cut by it, and some glass-shards remained stuck in it. Unfazed, Diego stepped onto the roof. Boreas tried to make him slip, but he kept on walking, keeping his balance. Boreas Ice Beamed him, and his only response was to quickly wave his paw and block it with a dark-attack. Boreas felt terrified; he had never known Diego to be this determined and quiet and hateful, and he knew he would pay dearly for the eye once the Zoroark reached him.

So he cooled the storm down, making it snow and hail, and gathered it to him, both cloaking him and preparing for a very powerful Blizzard. Diego did the same as he approached; the little light there was just died near him as both his paws were enveloped by ink-black darkness. Diego stopped when there was about five metres between them. "That hurt," he said simply, "very badly. But I'll make sure Aqua suffers at least ten times as much before I end her miserable, treacherous life too."

The storm around Boreas went faster and faster, like an icy tornado. "You evil git, what has she got to do with it?! She's not the one that hurt you!"

"True," said Diego. "But I will kill you quickly, as I can't wait to snuff you out. Her, on the other hand, I will have the time to have some fun with..." He grinned for the first time since Boreas had taken out his eye.

Boreas was disgusted and horrified. "To think I thought only this morning there might be more to you than pure evil..."

"I think I'll start with the eye. Except in her case, I'll remove it a lot more slowly. Starting with pulling out her eyelashes one by one. Then her eyelids. Only then will I take out her pretty black eye. Then the other one. Next, I'll break her paws. Slowly, of course, starting with each of her claws, and then-"

"Enough!" interrupted Boreas. "You can talk about your sick plans all you like, but it won't happen anyway. In a moment, you'll be dead."

"Wrong," said Diego, "but one of us will be anyway. Goodbye, Boreas."

Boreas made the storm lash out at Diego with all the cold he had in him as Diego threw the sheer darkness formed around his hands. The tremendous force of Diego's attack made it like attacking a wall with his storm to Boreas. He cringed and strained to make the icy hurricane blow harder towards his enemy, as the wave of black approached. He blindly fired a few Ice Beams into the massive clashing of energies, and from the other side the dark lightning responded, poorly aimed and missing him. Boreas had to remain focussed on giving his all as the battle turned to a clash of wills. The front where his Blizzard had collided with Diego's Dark Wave was a raging, crackling freakshow of energies that slowly moved away from him when he really tried his best, and towards him when he let his focus slip for even a moment.

Keeping it up was incredibly taxing, but Boreas had no other choice. If he stopped, Diego would win and he probably wouldn't survive being hit by the front. But this stalemate was clearly bad too; he felt his energy drain by the second. He very cautiously moved a step back, and the front instantly moved towards him. He strained hard and managed to stop the raging clash of energy about two metres in front of him. He felt with his rearmost paw that the roof ended right behind him: it suddenly dropped very steeply, almost vertically. He jumped back, despite the risk of falling to his death, began to fall down, grabbed a roof tile on the sheer face of the building, just below the edge he'd fallen over. The front flew over him, leaving the air smelling of ozone.

Boreas' handhold was slippery from the rain and he had to struggle not to fall until he remembered he was a Glaceon and simply froze his paws to it. He hung to the roof's side, waiting for Diego to either come look over the edge or turn about and leave. He could hear Diego's heavy footsteps come closer and got ready to blow him off the edge and make him fall to his death the moment he checked if Boreas had really fallen. The wind howled, rain pattered, and thunder roared, making it harder to hear the Zoroark's steps, but Boreas knew he would be close soon.

A heavy thud and accompanying pain shook Boreas' brain, made him yell out in pain and surprise, and made him involuntarily loosen his paws. He realised he was falling and quickly put his front paws to the roof tiles that were passing acceleratingly fast, freezing them to it. He hang almost three metres below the edge of the roof now, his rear legs dangling in mid-air as the side of the roof ended at navel-height, only a sheer depth beneath him.

There was a cold laughter and Diego looked over the edge, holding another roof tile in his hand. "How stupid do you think I am, Boreas? I knew it wouldn't be _that _easy."

Boreas' head was full of a ringing noise, and he felt blood dripping through his hair, but he remembered his plan: he made the storm suddenly blow from behind Diego. The Zoroark wasn't blown over, though.

"Really? I'm kneeled, you know, because I already knew you were going to do that. You've been getting predictable." He tossed the roof tile a little into the air and caught it again. "Leading to your death. Don't worry, I'll tell Aqua you loved her before I kill her." He threw the roof tile at Boreas, who had to make a very powerful wind to blow it off course before it hit him, tiring him further.

Boreas fired an Ice Beam at the one-eyed grin he hated so much, but Diego simply retracted his head for a moment, then threw another roof tile. "You know," he said, "I could just hit you with a Dark Pulse now, but somehow it's funnier this way. A tricky fellow like you killed by a brick to the head?"

"If it's a triumph of brute force and stupidity over brains you want," retorted Boreas, trying to reach the roof with his rear legs, as he couldn't climb with only his front legs: he needed both to keep himself hanging, "just you beating me in general would be a big one."

Boreas managed to get hit in the shoulder instead of the head by Diego's next projectile. "Big words from a small Glaceon," sneered Diego. "Especially one who is about to be nothing but a red smear fifty metres below. Or maybe I'll just leave you hanging here? You can't climb, so I'd give you the choice of death by hunger or falling."

"Don't count me out yet!" Boreas tore his paws loose at the same moment he created a great upward wind, making him fly up rapidly, Ice Beam and kick the flabbergasted Diego in the face. He froze the ground under him and made the wind he was carried by spiral around, dropping Boreas on the roof's edge and blowing Diego off, aided by the slippery ground.

But the Zoroark grabbed Boreas' tail and his great weight pull him over the edge as well. Boreas pressed all four paws to the side of the roof and froze them to it, and both his tail and paws nearly tore off from Diego's weight. The ice creaked and seemed to let him go a little more every moment, as did the skin of his paws, with felt like it was getting torn off. Diego dangled in the depths under him, holding his tail with both hands. "Let go of me!" Boreas yelled as he tried to hit the Zoroark with an Ice Beam; but it was impossible to aim in that direction.

Diego's hands slipped down a little on Boreas' tail, and he struggled to climb up. "Sure, I'll just heroically sacrifice myself for the one who just took out my eye!"

Boreas felt a big hand grab a hold of his hip and dig its claws in as Diego tried to climb up. But at that moment their combined weight was too much: Boreas' left front paw tore loose from the ice, and his other paws quickly followed. Everything accelerated upwards rapidly as they were suddenly weightless. Diego grabbed Boreas tighter, realising the Glaceon's command over the winds was his only salvation, while Boreas fought to unleash himself.

Boreas tried to put his paws to Diego's head to take him out with a pulse of cold while creating a powerful upwards wind to slow their fall, but Diego intercepted one of his paws and headbutted him hard in his broken ribs. He also spread out his legs, increasing his air resistance to make him fall slower, which caused him to end up on top. Realising Diego was planning to use him as a pillow to break his fall, Boreas made the wind spin them around so he was on top, before also hitting Diego in the chest with a pulse of cold.

They had reached the ground at the bottom of the building, which was a very steep slope. Diego hit the ground first making him slightly cushion Boreas' fall; he bounced off diagonally, spinning, and hit one of the small wooden sheds here, crashing through it and hitting the ground on his back.

The impact was strangely mostly painless, but completely knocked the air out of him and filled him with nausea and a severe sense of weakness. The pain was strangely very dull, like a very bad headache. Yet he felt drained and weak and nauseous. He looked down and saw a sharp metal spike, died red now, protrude from a bleeding hole in the right side of his chest.

"Oh, not good..." he groaned. He now realised the spike had impaled him all the way through the chest and was still stuck to the ground on the other end. It was about two centimetres thick and protruded fifteen centimetres from his chest, and as Boreas moved a very slight bit, the dull pain it caused him increased sharply. He was panting rapidly, each breath giving much less oxygen than normal. He considered lifting himself off the spike, but immediately realised its presence like a plug in his body was all that kept him from instantly bleeding out right now.

He looked around shed, which had collapsed from his fall. It seemed to have been a shed for storing tools for outside construction before Boreas' fall destroyed it; spikes of the same type that had impaled him were used to mount the storage boards inside it. Boreas grabbed the spike with both front paws and very cautiously tried to see if he could break it off under his body. There was no movement to it, and only a throb of nauseating pain as he tried. "Bugger."

While the spike's painful pressure inside the wound kept him from bleeding too much, he did realise he really had to get medical attention soon if he wanted to survive this. He carefully lifted his torso a centimetre, whimpering at the agony it caused, and directed a cold wind under him, hoping to make the part of the spike that was still attached to the ground brittle with cold so he could break it off.

After a minute of trying to free himself like this, his teeth clenched in pain, he saw Diego stumbling towards him. The Zoroark had clearly broken an arm, and possibly a leg as he walked very poorly, but laughed as he saw Boreas' predicament. "Bad luck, huh? I have half a mind to just leave you there. On the other hand... I want to kill you myself. So I'll just liberate you from that spike instead."

Boreas grabbed the spike himself, hoping he had made it brittle enough to break off, and gave it a strong yank. Tears of pain streamed through his fur and Diego approached, but the spike wouldn't break at first. Only when Diego was almost at him, there was a breaking noise, and Boreas could move again; enough to stand up anyway. Since Diego was so close by and surprised, Boreas froze a long, sharp point of ice to his left paw and slashed at his enemy, cutting a deep red cut into his already wounded leg. Every movement Boreas made hurt and made him lose more blood, but he was determined not to be killed by Diego, even if he wouldn't survive much past his archenemy. Diego managed to dodge his second slash and jumped back, but hadn't counted on the wounds to his legs and collapsed, falling onto his back.

Boreas tried to jump onto Diego to finish him, but hadn't counted on his injuries either. He cringed in mid-jump as the spike sent a terrible jolt of pain through his body and fell to the ground too. Diego got up. "You're much worse off than me," he said, "so just surrender and I'll give you a quick end."

Boreas rolled onto his side weakly and fired an Ice Beam at Diego. "Never! It's not as bad as it looks!"

Diego blocked his beam with a bolt of darkness. "You're right, silly me, being stabbed through the lung is quite alright; you've got a spare one after all, right?"

Boreas slowly got to his feet, panting rapidly and gritting his teeth against the pain. "Yeah, I do. And it's all I need to beat you."

Diego shrugged. "Fine with me. But you don't seem to realise all I need to do to win is wait until you've bled to death."

Diego limped away, his back actually turned to Boreas. Boreas saw his chance and Ice Beamed his neck, but Diego turned around and made his Ice Beam disappear at the very last moment. "So very predictable, Boreas," he taunted as he walked away again. Boreas walked after him, groaning in pain and exertion with every step. His right front paw was closest to the spike and consequently hurt the most to move; he switched to a limp instead, slowly following Diego on three legs. He had to wheeze as if he was running a marathon just to keep going at this snail's pace, and had absolutely no air left to fight with. Diego, on the other hand, though he was limping, was in far better condition and moved fast enough to easily keep ahead of Boreas. At one point, he even stopped to hit Boreas with the lightning again; though it didn't feel that awful compared to the spike through Boreas' chest now.

Boreas really considered not following Diego any more, but what else could he do? He still couldn't get to Ghetsis without beating Diego, so his only alternative was going back all the way to the pokécenter; but Diego was faster than him and would just kill him from behind. He was simply forced to play Diego's game, even though he felt weaker with every step as he left a red trail. Even cooling down his wounds to slow the bleeding wouldn't work, as his blood, unlike that of others, wouldn't flow slower as it got colder.

Boreas followed Diego back into the building they'd just fallen off, trailing him slowly up the stairs, and felt his life slowly leak away with his blood. He felt very cold, but in an unpleasant way, and his paws were starting to feel numb. Unfortunately the gaping hole in his chest only felt worse. They slowly ascended back to the floor Diego had set on fire, now mostly burnt out and ashy. Boreas walked through the carbonised corridor and left the building again for the path to the tallest tower on the ascending wall. Diego was waiting for him in the same place again, but this time he wasn't surprised. Boreas wanted to say something, but he needed air so badly he could only gasp and try to stay upright.

"Did you enjoy our little walk?" Diego asked with a cruel smile.

Boreas couldn't answer, gasping for air.

"I hope you did, because it was your last. You don't look like you have much time left in the first place, so I suppose I should put you out of your misery now." With his non-broken arm, Diego fired a beam of sheer darkness at Boreas.

Boreas parried with a pulse of cold. Diego looked mildly surprised Boreas still had some fight in him, and more so when Boreas parried another attack. Angrily, he tried a third time, to the same result as Boreas pushed himself to the limit to keep on fighting. "Why won't you die?!" he snapped.

Boreas wondered the same. It would be much easier to accept his defeat and let Diego put an end to the dreadful pain than to make it even worse by futilely fighting a far stronger enemy. "Several reasons, really," he said calmly. Then:

"Because I swore to be with Aqua until I die, and postponing that moment even a little is worth any amount of pain." Drawing strength from that thought, he managed to Ice Beam Diego in the shoulder to the surprise of them both. He parried the Dark Pulse Diego paid him back with, and Diego narrowly dodged his second Ice Beam, while he parried another lightning attack.

"Because I want to have many, many more arguments with Octa." Walking forward slowly to take him closer to Diego, he created a small snowy tornado around the Zoroark, sidestepped a beam, and riposted with an Ice Beam to Diego's bad leg.

"Because," he panted, fighting against the exhaustion and pain to keep going, "I don't want to give up the world to scum like you, and because I want to see places stranger than I ever imagined possible!" They rapidly exchanged beams, parrying and riposting as Boreas walked even closer.

"In short:" said Boreas finally as he looked down to Diego's bad leg for a moment, then instantly Ice Beamed his throat instead as the Zoroark protected his legs, "because I want to live!"

Diego gasped and choked as Boreas hit his throat and Boreas immediately followed up with a lengthier Ice Beam to the Zoroark's upper legs, and then his shoulder to disable his limbs. Then another to his throat. Diego fell on his back and Boreas jumped on top of him, pinning him down as long as the muscles in the his limbs were disabled with cold. He Ice Beamed Diego's neck again to make sure he was entirely powerless.

Diego tried to fight back, to escape, but found he could do absolutely nothing now, entirely paralysed from the neck down by his frozen nerves. Boreas saw the realisation that by the time he regained control of the rest of his body, he would be dead in his enemy's face. "That's impossible... How can you beat me?!" He trembled, took a deep breath, and calmly looked into Boreas' eyes. "Fine. Do it, then."

Boreas took a deep breath. He had won, at long last. Now was finally the time to pay Diego back for the hours he'd spent hanging by his tail from the Ferris wheel, for making Aqua join Team Plasma and trying to kill her, for the abuse of his brother's memory, and for brainwashing and killing N. He deserved to die, and freezing his brains with a continuous Ice Beam to the face really was far more merciful than he deserved. But it was what he was going to get.

So why did Boreas feel so untriumphant about it? This should be a happy moment, when he finally got rid of his greatest enemy, but it wasn't. Diego wasn't begging to be spared or trying to negotiate his surrender with Boreas; the calm look on Diego's face as he bravely faced death reminded him little of the cruel monstrosity who had done all those horrible things. It reminded him of his brother. Not his brother, he corrected himself; the Flareon he recalled Zeph as had never existed; was never more than an illusion. Yet he had many happy memories of him. He recalled the Flareon as his brother and friend. He had come here to kill Ghetsis, not whatever there might be left of that Flareon inside this horrid Zoroark.

"No," he said, standing up. "I'm done with you. You were once my brother, and I know there's some good of him left in you, deep down. I'm not here to extinguish that little hope you have, but for Ghetsis." He began to walk in the direction of the tower. "Leave Unova, right now. If I ever see you again I won't be so merciful."

Boreas hoped sincerely whatever had been in Diego's mind when he was playing Zeph would win out. He knew he would always hate the Zoroark, but maybe he could become a good person somewhere. Of course, it was far more likely he was getting up right now as his nerves thawed. He would right now be looking at Boreas slowly limping away and sneaking up on him, planning to attack and kill him from behind. Boreas walked on, then suddenly grabbed a rogue wind, spun around on the spot and made it rage rapidly around him.

Diego, who was indeed standing only a metre behind him now, was surprised entirely by the sudden wind hitting him and was blown against the fence on the side of the wall, which reached to his waist. For a moment he was between falling and standing, then he lost his balance and fell over the edge. "So very predictable, Diego," said Boreas.

The pain and exhaustion finally caught up to him and he collapsed on the spot.

–

Diego fell. He was furious the little runt had so completely predicted what he would do and surprised him, yet something in him knew it was no more than he deserved for betraying this chance he had been given. This time he fell much faster than last, without Boreas' power over air to slow him down, into a part of the battle. The ground came near so fast...

Right before he hit the ground, the Hydreigon fighting here jumped to its side. He landed on it, striking it down with the impact. It was a hard and painful landing, but he had escaped death. There was no time to feel triumphant, though, as Hydreigon's three heads roared angrily and one of its necks coiled around his wounded body.

"I'm Diego, a special emissary of Sage Ghetsis," commanded Diego. "You are to follow my orders. Fly me to the throneroom; Ghetsis' life is in danger and he has to be warned."

The Hydreigon's middle head roared angrily.

"I apologise for hitting you," said Diego, "but it saved my life. Now fly me to the throneroom; that's an order in name of Sage Ghetsis!"

It slowly smiled, showing its thousands of teeth, and licked its lips. Diego suddenly felt afraid. These kinds of pokémon were very proud and hard to train; it was a small miracle they followed the orders of the Sages at all. Now that Zinzolin was dead, it was very likely this Hydreigon was basically a wild pokémon again and wouldn't follow Ghetsis' orders if he was here personally.

"On the other hand," said Diego, showing no fear, "why don't you go back to fighting? I'll just walk."

He tried to escape from its grip but it only tightened its hold. It now looked at him with distinct hunger and opened its mouth wide, showing rows upon rows of dagger-sharp teeth and a hungry throat. Diego let his fury over having lost to Boreas flow through him, channelling it into his hand where it became dark lightning. But the fight had left him badly weakened and the mighty Hydreigon barely felt it.

As the thousands of teeth came closer, Diego finally realised he hadn't escaped death at all.

–

FEEDBACK: LemondoughnutPXC: Q: Yay! Toxica and Octa got back together!

A: Yeah, they did. This battle is turning out to be a pretty major point in everyone's love life, it seems.

Q: I hope Boreas doesn't die. Or Diego. I know he's meant to be bad, but I rather like him xD

A: Well, I hope at least you enjoyed his final chapter.

Eneko95: Q: OK, so Rood's got a Chandelure and a Ninetales...I'm guessing the "shoulderless red and gray creature" is a, uh...Camerupt? Heatmor? (Tell me when I get it.) Magcargo? Torkoal? What is it?

A: A Heatmor.

Q: Geez, dude, think you made Rood enough of a pyromaniac/total dick? The apology scene at the end was cute, but Arceus-damn!

A: Well, if the villains don't get to be evil, who does?

Q: Actually, I think part of that might be Boreas exaggerating to impress that Vaporeon chick.

A: Actually, the flashbacks are direct portrayals of what really happened; not what Boreas actually tells.

Ultimate-Glaceon: Q: Actually it was revealed that sylveon is the final form of eevee.

A: Do you mean they're never going to do another Eeveelution? I can't find anything to corroborate that.

Decimator1337: Q: I found [your fic] because I read your Donkey Kong Country stories. By the way, scratch the not playing the games. I'm starting to catch up, since by this time I got several badges in Pokemon Yellow.

A: Ah, I see, great to hear you gave this story a read despite being unfamiliar with pokémon. Personally I find Yellow probably the worst Pokémon game apart from Diamond and Pearl, but I suppose tastes differ. Though don't expect to see most pokémon in this story in that game, as most of them were added later.

Q: By the way, I like the Equinoxes. Experienced warriors and all the sort, right...?

A: Yeah. They are supposed to have a certain charm to them.

Q: I also wonder whatever happened to old Jimmy.

A: Presumably he went on being a crappy trainer for a while and released his Patrat once Team Plasma declared war on trainers and things got scary.

Q: Never found the Tumblr "thingie". Just got curious to see what others were going to do, but anyway...

A: Here you go: askboreasandtheothers dot tumblr dot com . You replace the 'dot's with .s but that was probably obvious.

Q: Taking your time with the next chapter, hmm? ;)

A: Well, I've taken two months over a chapter once; fifteen days is hardly _that_ long. Particularly considering this is the longest chapter of the entire story, beating chapter 50 by sixhundred words. Interestingly, that was also a chapter featuring Boreas fighting Diego.

TheGlaceonFanatic: Q: Looks like I was right the Solar Beam thing then! Interesting idea! And great chapter!

A: Indeed you were; and thanks.

Q: I think this chapter as a collection of events, as I noticed you didn't chose to focus too much on a particular situation.

A: You're absolutely right. I had a very clear and important story for 72 and 73; as well as for 75 and the chapter(s) still coming; but 74 always was pretty much a chapter to tie the beginning of the battle and its end together, getting them from the end of chapter 73 to the beginning of 75. It also was the hardest (so far) and least fun chapter of this part to write because of that.

Q: Looks like the Equinox dragged their family drama all the way in battle, lol xD

A: Yeah, they're that kind of family. :p

Q: And next chapter is certainly going to be exciting! The climax of the story! Or actually, this is already the climax, but even more epic! I certainly look forward to it!

A: Well, I suppose you could call this chapter the first half of the climax, with the rest yet to come.


	76. The Last Chance

Chapter Seventy-Six: The Last Chance

Lucius bit the Garchomp's wing pressing hard against his throat, pinning him up against the wall about a metre off the ground. It was hard to bite through the rubbery scales, however, and Garchomp just ignored him drawing blood. As its thousands of teeth came closer and closer to bite off his head, Lucius really wished he could breathe fire into the dragon's face, but that was impossible as he couldn't breathe at all. No amount of struggling against the wing moved it.

A black flurry of feathers hit Garchomp in the face, surprising it so it stopped pressing on Lucius' throat for a moment. He fell down, drew a big breath, and exhaled flames all over Garchomp's lower body, but the dragon was barely harmed by his fire. Lucius growled: that stupid Selene was actually doing more damage than him, scratching around its head while it tried to catch her. Not wanting to be outdone by that airhead, Lucius dug his teeth, infused with dark energy, into Garchomp's tail.

The sharkdragon tried to shake him off, thrashing its tail about, but he hung onto it by his teeth. But when it stamped its feet on the ground and created mighty shockwave, he was knocked away and floored, along with half the other combatants.

As Lucius scrabbled back to his feet, Garchomp managed to catch Selene in its jaws, shook her around violently, and threw her away, a bloody little heap of bird. Lucius ignited in rage and furiously attacked Garchomp again and again, biting, scratching, and breathing fire while his anger took the form of copious amounts of darkness striking at his enemy. He relished every wound he inflicted, every drop of blood he spilled, and the clear pain he caused Garchomp. His sheer fury took it aback and made it take a while before he was finally hit by its heavy claw which rent his side. He still continued, like a living inferno of fury, until the ground itself rose up against him in a great earthquake and threw him several metres away, where he landed hard. Garchomp wasted no time and pounced at him to kill him.

–

As Octa's family rapidly retreated from the battle, leaving them with only a very few against the overwhelmingly powerful enemy, Aqua's instincts told her it would be a really great idea to follow them. The urge to do so was quite overwhelming in fact, even though she knew they had to buy Boreas time. But they had bought him so much already, and he was up against a Kyurem... Maybe he was dead already, and she could just flee?

She chewed herself out inwardly for such a thought. Boreas couldn't die; she'd kill him if he did. Yet her legs were about ready to run for her life as she tried to keep Lucario, Klinklang, and Escavalier at bay with a rapid vortex of water. Octa's sister Livia was the only one of the house of Equinox who hadn't retreated. "Sorry to state the obvious," she said to them, "but we _really_ need them to get back here."

"Yeah," agreed Toxica. "Octa, can't you say anything to them? Tell 'em not to listen to Gaius or something?!"

"I'm sorry, my dear," said Octa, "but I doubt they'd listen to me over Gaius. I left our house, remember? Half of them consider me an apostate. However, my dear sister, you are still a part of the house. Couldn't you challenge Gaius?"

Livia tried to fight Kyurem from afar. "I may agree with you on most things, but I owe Gaius my allegiance as our new leader, Octa. I can't just challenge his authority directly like that!"

_I'm going to die because these two nitwits can't take a stand against their own brother._ Aqua sighed and dodged a swing of Escavalier's arm that nearly cut her in half. "Well, I'd happily challenge him, but they have no clue who I am, so they're hardly going to listen to _me_! Maybe I can get through to them if I kill him?"

Octa frowned. "Hilarious. Perhaps you would be so kind as to quit the poor attempts at humour and let me try and convince my sister?"

"Look," said Aqua, trying to keep calm, "we're all going to die, so I'm just trying to cope with it using humour."

"Well, you-"

"Hey, bunch of spineless cowards!" shouted Toxica. "I guess the house of Equinox's talk of honour and valour is just talk, no more!"

"Subtle," groaned Octa, defending against Eelektross and Spiritomb. The Serperiors actually came to a halt.

"How dare you insult the great and noble house of Equinox?!" asked Gaius lividly.

"The way I see it, it's not me insulting it, but you. Running away from a good fight just because your dad died? It's obvious the house of Equinox is nothing but a mewing bunch of cowardly hypocrites!"

"Who the hell do you think you are to insult us?"

Toxica laughed. "I'm Toxica."

"I know that."

"_Just_ Toxica. Toxica of no bloody house; I don't even know who my parents are and am farther away from nobility than anyone you'll ever meet. Yet here I am, fighting on for a small chance of victory, when you muppets are running for the hills. And I'm not alone either: Aqua here is fighting just as hard and is also a very ordinary girl, and so is Esper, and Altaïr and the others here. But you guys just run off, despite all your talk of great heroic ancestors."

"How dare you?!"

Toxica's speech certainly had an effect, as the Serperiors talked amongst themselves, and two of them even rejoined the battle, taking a bit of pressure off everyone's shoulders. "She is right, Gaius," said Octa, "so please, give the order to rejoin the battle; don't force me to do something we'd both regret."

"I shan't. You are a traitor to our house and 'tis not becoming of our new leader to be ordered about by you."

"You're not their new leader yet, Gaius." Octa raised his voice so the others could hear him. "Equinoctes, hear me! Toxica is right; Gaius' orders to retreat were cowardly and mistaken, and I do not believe he is fit to be your leader. I urge all of you: stand with us! Let us fight for victory or death, as the great Equinox would have us do! The day is not lost, in fact if our valour can stand through this darkest hour, we can achieve great victory!"

"Do not listen to Octavianus. He is..." Gaius' voice trailed off as he realised the others had joined Octa, ignoring him fully.

"I'm sorry, brother," said Octa.

–

Boreas knew he had little time left. The only reason he wasn't dead yet was the same spike that had stabbed him all the way through the chest in the first place: it was like a plug in the wound, keeping most of the blood inside. But he was still losing an awful lot of it, much of his fur dyed red by now. He was terribly cold, especially in his paws, and had to pant rapidly to get enough air. He rose up very slowly on his terribly weak paws, clenching his teeth against the constantly worsening pain in his chest, but nearly blacked out from exertion and fell back to the ground.

_Just lie there... The pain will soon go away..._ He felt so dreadfully tired. His approaching death felt like a sweet, restful sleep that his body craved for. Maybe he should just close his eyes...

He spread his eyes wide open. He couldn't die! He had just told Diego how much he wanted to live; to just throw away his life a minute after he fought so hard for it was the stupidest thing he could do. He would rest once he got to the pokécenter; rest for days in a row, but not for eternity! Holding on to the thought of Aqua's tearfully happy face as she'd see he was still alive, he forced himself upright. Panting, he managed to stand on four legs. A scarily large puddle of blood had collected where he'd lain by now, but he had to have enough left to get back. His head spun and his vision teetered with black spots, but he remained standing, wobbling in place. He took a step forwards; so far so good. He took another, but his knee just gave away and he fell to three legs. He slowly prodded himself back up. He had to keep going.

_Except..._ Another thought gripped his weakly-beating heart like an iron claw. _Maybe I shouldn't go on? Maybe I should turn around? I came here to kill Ghetsis, and I haven't done that yet._

What a silly thought. No-one could expect from him that he'd just throw away his life like that. Risking it, yes; he had no problem risking his life, but it was very different to throw it away. He slowly took another step away from the tower. If he didn't get to the pokécenter as fast as possible right now, he'd die. It was that simple. Someone else would have to finish it.

_Who else is there?_ The very annoying thought that he was the only one who had made it past the enemy gnawed at him. Maybe someone else would break through too? But that was as ludicrous as thinking he'd survive if he went on to kill Ghetsis; the enemy were with far too many and were far too strong. The only reason Boreas had gotten through was luck. If he didn't kill Ghetsis, no-one would, and everyone who had died today would've died in vain. Black, Febby, and all the others.

He took another step. It didn't matter to the dead, after all. Killing Ghetsis and winning the battle, possibly the entire war, wouldn't bring them back. Only the living mattered; and he was still barely among them and intended to stay that way. He would just have to make his way back and tell his friends and anyone else who was still alive to retreat. He was planning to leave Unova with Aqua to see the rest of the world anyway. Who would ever blame him for not going on in this condition?

_I would._ It was true; he would never forgive himself if he had thrown away the last chance Unova had. If the entire continent continued to suffer because of him he could never forgive himself.

But he would be alive. And in time, he might get over it, journeying through far away places. It would be far easier to live with the guilt of the state he'd left distant Unova in than to die. Particularly since it wasn't actually as simple as just going into the tower and automatically killing Ghetsis; not in Boreas' current state, with white Kyurem guarding him. He would most likely just throw away his life in vain instead of at least doing it for a good reason.

And yet... He couldn't let Team Plasma win. He was the only person in the world who had a chance to make a difference, to finally beat them. Wasn't that worth his life? He knew Octa would say it was his duty to go on and kill Ghetsis, but Boreas didn't believe in that. He simply had a choice, and what he chose was his to live with or die from. But whichever way he chose, he had to do it now, or he'd bleed out on the spot and make neither choice.

Capella's face came back to him, at the very moment she realised she could only save him or herself. Capella had smiled in the knowledge of her approaching death, gladly died for her friend. He should be like Capella and make the right, heroic choice. But he also recalled her life had ended seconds later and what her corpse had looked like, and how she was now gone, completely unable to enjoy life any more.

He made his choice and continued on his way to the pokécenter, slowly dragging himself away from the tower. He couldn't make that sacrifice. He was not Capella, and he was not a hero. He was just a badly wounded Glaceon who wanted to live on with his new wife. He wasn't going to sacrifice himself just for a whole continent full of random people he didn't even know. They'd just have to take care of themselves.

That sounded like something Diego would say. Team Plasma didn't care that they were ruining the lives of millions of nameless others as long as it benefited them. And here Boreas was, doing the same thing. And he slowly began to actually imagine what people would have to go through for many more years if Team Plasma's rule was allowed to continue. It was easy enough to ignore them when he thought of them as a number, but they were real people; human and pokémon. He sighed, realising he couldn't abandon them to Team Plasma.

"Dammit," he sighed as he turned around. "I'm sorry, Aqua..."

Gritting his teeth against the pain and barely keeping himself up, he slowly, step for step, stumbled to the throneroom. He had to take the chance he might be able to kill Ghetsis, even though it meant accepting his death.

–

Garchomp moved towards Lucius for the kill. He tried to run, but was still lying on the ground and hurt by the earthquake. He tried to get up, but he was slow and the speedy dragon's maw was nearly at him.

A sudden beam of darkness from behind Lucius struck Garchomp and Selene landed in its face, more jumping than flying. Distracted, the dragon's heavy head struck the ground next to Lucius instead of the Houndoom himself, who managed to dodge. He grabbed his chance and sunk his teeth into Garchomp's suddenly exposed throat. Even here, the reptile's skin was very tough and hard to get through, but he quickly tasted its delicious salt blood.

A heavy claw threw Lucius and Selene back onto the ground, but Garchomp was badly wounded now, its blood leaking out of its bitten throat. Lucius roared in triumph even as he was in pain.

Garchomp's every breath gurgled and bubbled in its wounded throat. It looked at Lucius and Selene, spread its wings, and took flight, making up for its small wings by its speed. Ryoku shouted at it to return, but it ignored him and fled for its life. "Hell yeah!" Lucius roared triumphantly. "You'd better run!" He turned his attention to Selene, hiding his concern as he prodded her. "Hey birdbrain, you okay?"

Lucius helped her to her feet, worried about the big red stains in her black feathers. "Broke my wing," she said, "but I'll live."

"Right, then let's kill that sucker Ryoku and avenge Capella."

But there was one problem, Lucius discovered: they were now fully surrounded by the Sage's team, as most of the other combatants had fled.

–

Aqua laughed as her wave swept Ghetsis' Bouffalant off its feet and carried it along. It was like a river around her, and she could control every bit of the water like it was a part of her body. With Octa's family joining them again, things were a little less dire. They would still die if Boreas wouldn't succeed, but at least it wouldn't happen immediately. In fact if she didn't look at Metagross and Kyurem, things didn't seem too desperate.

Bouffalant was strong and fought against the current, clearly unwilling to submit, and Aqua would've continued attacking it if she hadn't glimpsed Metagross blasting away one of Octa's family members and leaving Toxica fighting it on her own. The mighty metal creature seemed ready to crush her at any moment, as she was completely busy dodging its powerful attacks: flashes of bright metallic light, psychic bursts, and physical attacks.

Aqua gave her all to the current to make Bouffalant wash far away in the hopes someone else would engage it, then raced for Metagross. Toxica screeched as a Flash Cannon attack hit her shoulder and threw her back. Metagross launched itself to crush Toxica, so Aqua rushed to save her in a rapid jet of water. She collided with her friend, shoved her out of the way, and just managed to evade the robot's heavy bulk coming down herself. But before she could turn around to fight it, a massive metal leg came down and shattered her thigh. The extreme pain had just begun to register when Metagross lifted another leg to crush her with.

A Solarbeam and an angry Vileplume hit Metagross as Toxica fought it. Aqua gathered water to her, as she could far more easily swim than walk with her broken leg, and rejoined the battle as well.

Suddenly both of them were caught in place as Metagross' eyes flashed and its powerful, mechanic mind assaulted theirs. Aqua tried to focus to hold it back, but it easily tore her defences to shreds and mercilessly continued its destructive path straight into her mind.

–

Boreas was dying. Every step he took was agony, and harder than the last. His body was almost entirely numb and cold as death, except for the wounds on his head and especially the one on his chest, which tormented him. Yet his resolve became stronger with every agonising step. If the last thing he was going to do with his life was killing Ghetsis, at least it was something worthwhile. The pain would at last be gone once he was done with this. He had accepted his fate.

He stumbled into the throneroom. Gravity seemed so much stronger, but he couldn't fall despite his dizziness, as he probably couldn't get himself up again if he did. Ghetsis was sitting on N's throne wearing a black suit and a long cloak, with the large white form of Kyurem passively standing next to the throne. While N had sat on the golden throne itself, Ghetsis had added some thick pillows to it. Boreas felt he should be feeling hate for the man who had begun this all, murdered Black, and now would lead to his own death. But he was out of hatred after his fight with Diego. He had to protect Unova from this man, that was all.

Kyurem approached menacingly when it saw him, but Ghetsis called it back. "What is this?" he said in surprise. "What happened to you, Glaceon?"

Boreas wondered if he should keep his purpose secret, remembering a pokémon master like Ghetsis could understand most of what a pokémon said. But he had a better idea. "My name... Is Boreas... I've come to kill you."

Ghetsis laughed. "Poor thing, you're in no condition to kill anyone, save for yourself. I'll call someone to have you taken to our doctors."

"No," said Boreas, choosing the few words he could get out among his ragged breathing wisely. "You are a dangerous, evil man... You have plunged... Unova into your cruel tyranny... If I have to die to kill you, then so be it." He spoke between rapid breaths.

Ghetsis smiled pityingly. "Why don't you just calm down? You're Black's Glaceon, right? The one who tried to attack me earlier as well. It was nothing personal what I did to your master, you know. I just needed Reshiram."

"Yes, you stole it. Very _dishonest_."

Ghetsis rolled his eyes. "How did you get that wounded anyway?"

"Diego," said Boreas.

"I see. And where is he now?"

"Dead." Boreas smiled triumphantly.

Ghetsis' arrogant façade broke and his smile disappeared. "What? You killed him?"

Boreas nodded.

"I see," he said icily. "You shouldn't have done that, you know. He was a loyal, useful ally and a good friend."

"He was an evil git and just a tool to do your dirty work," Boreas retorted.

"There's no point with me arguing with a pokémon that's nothing but a simple tool for an already dead man. Kyurem, kill it slowly."

Boreas knew he was in no condition to defend at all and clenched his teeth as the flames hit.

–

Octa found himself fighting Kyurem again, feeling frozen to the bone as its deathly cold enveloped him. Even the warm feeling of pride he'd had when his family had heeded his speech and stayed wasn't enough to stop its biting cold. Massive, icy claws hunted for him, and he knew it was only a matter of time before they'd catch him in the intense blizzard. But there was no-one here who stood a chance against Kyurem; Boreas was their only hope if he was still alive. It seemed unlikely he was, with how long it had been since he broke through; the Glaceon had probably fallen to the other Kyurem. But if he hadn't, Octa refused to see anyone else killed while they were buying him time; and the best way to prevent that right now was to engage Kyurem himself, even if it would most likely be his death.

Octa's skin was numb with cold and every one of his joints hurt to move, but he couldn't stop. If he stopped dodging and stabbing Kyurem for a second, he'd be dead and it'd move on to its next victim, and neither of those prospects appealed to him.

Things were going much better than could be expected when a single Serperior fought a Kyurem, really, even if he was slowly freezing. Dodge, slash, dodge, slash, dodge, slash. Slash after slash, Kyurem's legs became covered in cuts oozing a dark gas instead of blood. Octa half-expected it to continue like this until the cold made him too slow to evade his enemy's attacks, but it wasn't so: at one point the moment his blade touched Kyurem's leg a megavolt jumped through the blade into Octa.

He found himself lying on the ground a few metres away, every muscle feeling cramped and his body smoking after slightly while white spots danced in his eyes. They didn't hide the furious legendary about to maul him, though, nor the fact he had lost his Leaf Blade and certainly had no time to make a new one.

Kyurem was about to kill Octa when a bright Solarbeam hit it from the side. It looked around, more curious than hurt, and saw Gaius. Octa quickly bolted back upright and rushed for his Leaf Blade. They both engaged Kyurem again.

"Thank you," said Octa, "but why?"

"Because I have made a terrible mistake," said Gaius, moving faster than Octa as he hadn't been half-frozen yet. "Several, in fact. Our house joining you made me realise how right you were: flight was an act of cowardice. I may not be worthy to lead our house. I'm sorry brother. For everything I've said."

There was no more chance to talk, as Kyurem was enraged and they were in position for an attack. The bitter cold around the legendary intensified. Octa and Gaius raced to get away from the focal point of its Blizzard, but the cold was horrible and made even the worst Boreas had ever done feel like an oven. Octa's skin and eyes froze within seconds, which felt oddly like being on fire. He would have screamed if he could open his mouth. He could still move a little, but the crackling feeling made him worried his frozen skin was breaking into little pieces as he did so. But not half as worried as he was about the feeling of the cold cutting into his body like an icy blade. His bones felt frozen and his muscles responded sluggishly.

The very air froze down with a noise like sixty nails scraping on a blackboard. Though his sense of touch had thankfully disappeared after the burning pain of his skin freezing and his vision was vague and blurry through his frozen eyes, Octa still noticed the air depositing as a lethally cold hail. Then he was simply unable to move at all, too cold. His mind too was rapidly shutting down as ice-cold blood reached it.

The big, vague shape of Kyurem stepped towards him, casually passing by Gaius, who had suffered a similar fate to Octa's grief. He tried to think of anyone who might save them, but all the others were in almost as bad a position fighting the rest of the pokémon here. Kyurem put its large foot on top of him, about to crush him. Octa realised this was the end. He just hoped Toxica would survive.

–

Lucius breathed a sea of fire over the Ferrothorn about to crush Selene as she cut off branches of Shiftry with slashes of sharpened air. He saw Lilligant coming for him, but had no time to defend and received a long, deep cut in his side from its sharpened leafarm. His jaws found its other arm before it could cut his throat as well and he breathed fire right into its face. Using its tentacles, Cradily threw a barrage of rocks at both dark-types, who were hit several times.

Lilligant wasn't defeated yet and slashed at Lucius' feet. He cursed as he dropped to the ground and was instantly set upon by his badly burnt enemy. It no longer looked anywhere near cute with many of its petals carbonised and its face burned, showing its bare animal-like flesh in a mad, nightmarish fury. Two blade-like leafarms tried to stab him in the chest and throat so he grabbed them both tightly, while a smouldering facial petal wrapped around his maw to prevent him from using more fire. However, he slowly fought-back the razor-sharp leafarms, as he was stronger than his enemy.

That is, until myriads of roots sprung from its feet and crawled up along his body. They pierced his skin like a thousand needles as they kept growing and travelled up along his body, quickly wrapping him in a growing cocoon of the stuff. Wherever the roots pricked through his skin, they began draining him. The entered into the wounds he already had too, reopening them. The pain was terrible. His strength was rapidly drained and he began losing against the knife-like leaves. Yet Lilligant didn't kill him with them, though it easily could: it enjoyed draining him alive far too much, its roots reaching up to his shoulders by now and pain and weakness overwhelmed him as they began to grow over his head.

–

Boreas writhed to keep away from the small flames all around him. It was useless, as there was no escape from the tormenting fire, but he couldn't resist it. He did manage not to scream, though. It would only waste the tiny bit of air he had, and he had less and less from the exertion and inhaling smoke. The need for oxygen quickly became even more painful than either the spike through his right lung or the flames roasting him like hot coals. His mind and lung burned as he slowly blacked out and asphyxiated.

"Kyurem, give it a moment to catch its breath," ordered Ghetsis.

Boreas lay on the ground panting and recovering from the torture. He had to act quick now. "Reshiram," he said to Kyurem between rapid breaths, "remember me? I fought with Black, just like you."

Kyurem slightly turned its head as it looked at him.

"Remember, Black?" continued Boreas. "The 'hero' you came out of that rock for? Who 'fought for the truth', as you called it?"

"I REMEMBER."

"Good. Then do you also remember how he died? Kyurem killed him, ordered by Ghetsis!"

It was quiet. "I AM KYUREM."

"Then you-"

"Kyurem, continue," ordered Ghetsis.

Boreas couldn't suppress a whimper of pain as the horrible flames continued to dance around him and roast him with their terrible heat; though they never touched him and his fur didn't combust. He squirmed to stay away from them as much as he could, but it was still like being fried alive.

Ghetsis watched him, sitting on his throne in his dark suit, with a malevolent grin on his face. "Poor Glaceon," he said mockingly. "So much suffering. I'll be merciful and order Kyurem to make it end if you beg me for it."

Death sounded very appealing right now. Any end to the agony did. But he had to take Ghetsis with him, he had to convince Kyurem. He weathered the torment in silence, looking into Ghetsis' eyes defiantly. Again, he slowly and agonisingly suffocated until Ghetsis ordered Kyurem to stop. Boreas lay there, recovering a little.

"So you're a defiant one?" said Ghetsis. "Well, then I'll just continue this little exercise until you give up."

Boreas ignored him and turned to Kyurem, talking as fast as his breath would allow. "If you are Kyurem, then that means you're the one who killed Black. The hero who fought for truth."

"GHETSIS FIGHTS FOR TRUTH."

Boreas rolled his eyes. "Reshiram said the same about Black. But Black and Ghetsis were enemies; how can there be two conflicting truths?"

Boreas thought he detected a pause and uncertainty in Kyurem's voice. "GHETSIS FIGHTS FOR THE TRUTH."

"You keep saying that. Maybe you're right. But then, answer me this: what did Black fight for when Reshiram was with him? And what did Ghetsis, who he fought against, fight for? Does the truth change?"

Kyurem was quiet. Boreas barely dared hope he had put the legendary in doubt.

"Kyurem," ordered Ghetsis, "continue."

Kyurem didn't instantly move, lost in thought, so Boreas talked quick in the hopes of avoiding another round of torture. "Was Black wrong? But then, how could Reshiram consider him the hero? You fought for the truth with Black and you fought for the truth with Ghetsis, but they can't both be right!"

"Kyurem," ordered Ghetsis, sounding worried, "kill it, right now! It's lying to you."

Saying Ghetsis was the one lying to it was a bad idea; it would be Boreas' word against its master's, and Ghetsis would win that. "The problem is: there is no truth. No absolute truth at least."

Kyurem snapped to attention and looked angry. "THAT IS A LIE. I AM TRUTH."

"_Reshiram_ claimed it was the truth. But you just said it yourself: you're Kyurem."

"I AM RESHIRAM."

"You claim to be truth, yet you change your mind all the time. If there is absolute truth, answer me this: are you Kyurem or Reshiram? Was Black right or is Ghetsis?"

Kyurem was quiet.

"You are not a personification of truth, as there's no such thing. What you are is a confused being with illusions of grandeur, created from the original Kyurem by people who thought in black-and-whites and threw away all doubt. But they were wrong to do so: there is no absolute truth, and doubt is precious. I'm certain of it," he added with a chuckle.

"Kyurem, it's lying, kill it!"

Boreas got to his feet, feeling recovered with his last energy now. Kyurem just stood there and stared, locked in inner conflict as it tried to conform this logic with its inner philosophy. "It won't kill me, Ghetsis. You've lost." He cooled his body down with his last energy to end Ghetsis' life with a continuous Ice Beam to the head. His wounds burned and he was so very tired and heavy, but he had to do this final thing. Then he could rest.

Ghetsis didn't even get up. In fact, he still smiled. "Have I? I admit, it's impressive you managed to talk Kyurem into this, but you haven't thought things through. If you kill me, all the energy in Kyurem will be released in a huge explosion. Even if you were healthy, you couldn't get away in time; as badly wounded as you are you won't even make it out of the throneroom before it happens. Kill me, and you'll kill yourself."

"I know," said Boreas, walking closer. He couldn't afford to miss, as he certainly wouldn't have energy for a second try. Ghetsis might hit him with his cane again given such a chance, too. "I accepted that I would die when I entered here."

There was a momentary crack of fear in Ghetsis' calm façade. "Brave. But you're not the only one who would die. Giallo's last report indicated he was fighting a bunch of pokémon. Some of which seem to be your late trainer's other possessions... A Serperior, a Vileplume, and a Vaporeon, among others. Were you good friends with them?" Boreas tried to keep his appearance neutral as a terrible fear came over him, but Ghetsis clearly saw through it and laughed. "Very good friends, clearly. Perhaps there's even a lover among them? They're fighting the other Kyurem right now, and if you kill me, they'll die in its explosion. Even if they're quite far away from it; these are legendaries and contain immense amounts of power. Kill me, and you kill them."

That was the one thing Boreas hadn't thought of yet. He was fully prepared to die and to go through any amount of pain, but he had hoped, almost expected, his friends to survive to see the results.

"We can do this differently," continued Ghetsis. "I don't want to die, and you don't want your friends to die. So let's make this deal: you surrender to me, and I order Giallo to stand down and have our pokémon fight only to defend themselves. Then we go down there together and you convince them to surrender as well. One of our medics takes a look at you, and then we put you all in a boat to anywhere outside of Unova you want. None of you dies and you all get to live out your lives in a place where you'll never see Team Plasma again."

Boreas knew he should just kill Ghetsis. He would help millions throw off Team Plasma and live in freedom if he did. Those millions were up against the lives of a few, and that would be an easy choice if it wasn't for the identity of those few. "How do I know I can trust you?" he asked to win time to think.

Ghetsis shrugged. "Because I've got no reason to lie. It will cost us as good as nothing to let you and anyone else you choose live and leave Unova. There's no point to me breaking my word."

Boreas felt Ghetsis was speaking the truth. And he couldn't refuse the deal. He couldn't live with the idea that he would kill Aqua. The freedom of millions easily lost against her life.

–

Kyurem's world was entirely focused on the horrible green snake. And now, at last, it had its revenge. It was about to crush the now-frozen Serperior underfoot when it saw something deeply disturbing through its telepathic bond with its other self in the throneroom: the life of the hero was threatened by a Glaceon! And Kyurem's other self wasn't doing anything about it for some reason.

Kyurem forgot its fury against the Serperior and spread out its wings wide, flying up to the throneroom at top speed to kill the Glaceon who threatened the hero.

–

Lucius was being drained by a thousand roots no matter how hard he fought against them, and was beginning to black out. His vision of Lilligant's terribly burnt visage slowly disappeared as roots began to grow over his eyes. But then a ball of ruffled feathers landed on it and drew its claws through the badly wounded face. Lilligant screeched, but Selene had jumped onto its legs and cut through its roots before it could retaliate.

The agony of the roots draining him ended instantly and many broke off quickly. As Lilligant had turned its attention to Selene, Lucius was free to move, shook off much of the dying roots, and bit its throat before it could get Selene.

His skin was still leakier than a colander and he felt terribly drained down. Selene wasn't much better off: fighting the other grass types had drawn a heavy toll on her and her feathers were more red than black by now. Ryoku's remaining pokémon still surrounded them and were about to attack as well, and Lucius realised this was the end. Even though they were both strong against grass-types, they stood no chance, outnumbered, surrounded, and wounded as badly as this. He looked into Selene's eyes, and saw she knew it too. She hopped onto his shoulder as he managed to partly get up.

"It's been fun," she said as Tangrowth spread out its huge mass of vines threateningly.

"Yeah." Lucius gave her feathers a gentle pet with one paw as Tangrowth's writhing forest of vines was nearly upon them. "Let's get this last one."

With their final strength, Lucius breathed a sea of fire and Selene slashed and cut through climbers, fighting together to the last as they disappeared into the mass of strangling and draining vines.

–

As Kyurem was about to crush Octa, it suddenly stopped mid-movement. Its head turned and looked up at the tower, and then it spread its wings and flew up, leaving him there. The cold air was rapidly blown away by the storm, which felt like a desert wind by comparison. As frozen air sublimated, rain that felt boiling hot fell on Octa's frozen skin and heated him up. He managed to get up and looked around in bewilderment, wondering what was going on. In the south, a large golden spot in the sky showed the Sun breaking through the clouds.

–

Kyurem flew up on massive wings, distracting Metagross for just the moment needed to break its devastating psychic attack. Aqua used her chance to blast it with her strongest Hydro Pump, using the copious rainwater to make it easier. Despite its massively heavy bulk, Metagross was pushed back by the attack. It braced itself against the ground with two legs and began to tilt over by the water's sheer pressure, giving Aqua an idea: she gathered water to her in a big wave and let it give the balancing Metagross the final push, flipping it over like a horseshoe crab on the beach.

Aqua was exhausted, but Metagross was stuck for the moment and Toxica used that handily: she jumped onto the meal spider's belly and sprouted roots, searching for any crack in the weaker armour here. Metagross had to let it happen while it worked to flip back the right way up: its legs slowly turned upside-down by their joints and then activated their powerful electromagnets to levitate by.

Toxica released her roots and jumped off her enemy and made thick grass grow rapidly under Metagross that knotted around its legs and pulled it back to the ground. Aqua created a big wave to wash over and submerge the steel colossus, staying behind herself instead of staying in the wave. With good reason: when Metagross was fully submerged, the electromagnets on its legs, at their most powerful as it tried to get loose from the grass knots, shortened out in the water, which conducted their powerful current right around Metagross and through the now-widened cracks in its belly-armour. The water fizzled and flashed and boiled as Metagross electrocuted itself.

Toxica and Aqua were left exhausted and wounded, but victorious. "Woah," said Toxica.

"Yeah," said Aqua.

"C'mon," said Toxica, running ahead, "we have to see if Octa's okay."

–

Ghetsis grinned without any fear. He clearly knew Boreas wouldn't sacrifice his friends and that he was in no serious danger. The freedom of the entire continent was simply no match for the lives of his cherished newly-wed wife and the best friend he'd had as good as his whole life. Living in some place faraway with them and trying to forget Unova didn't sound too bad.

But what would they think of this? They were both willing to wager their lives to make his plan work. They would probably be none too pleased that he had decided for them not to make that sacrifice. He hoped they would forgive him, but even if they never wanted anything to do with him and considered him a traitor, at least they'd be alive. That was good enough.

But they'd have to live with a strange kind of complicity in the defeat today. If it wasn't for them, Boreas would have killed Ghetsis and completed his plan. Because, come to think of it, it was _his_ plan that had made the resistance fight this futile battle. Everyone who had died in the battle had eventually done so to give him this last chance for victory. Black, Febby, and all of the other dead whose bodies now lay here in the castle, possibly even Lucius and Selene, had died for his plan. If they hadn't fought this battle, if he hadn't pushed for his terrible idea, they would still be alive. The resistance would've fled the League and remained much stronger, still able to eventually beat Team Plasma by other means. But now, they were crushed. So many had died, and many more would die in the flight from the lost battle. The survivors would be few and completely powerless. If he didn't kill Ghetsis, they wouldn't just have died in vain, but they wouldn't have died at all if it wasn't for him. He would be just as responsible for their deaths as Team Plasma if he didn't do what he came to do. It wasn't just a choice between Unova and his friends.

"Well?" asked Ghetsis impatiently. "Have you decided yet, Glaceon?"

Thinking of it like that, his choice was clear. His death, Octa's death, even Aqua's death, were all acceptable. They had all been willing to wager their lives for his plan, and he owed it to everyone to finish what he had started.

"Yes," he said calmly, "I have."

Cooling his body down with his last energy, he shot an Ice Beam right between Ghetsis' eyes. The human's smug, sure expression changed to one of fear and surprise and he tried to get up, but Boreas kept up the Ice Beam and he fell back on the cushioned throne. Within seconds, Ghetsis stopped moving and blacked out. Boreas continued the Ice Beam to give him a soft death by cooling his brain down.

He ended the beam and felt an immense weight fall off his chest. Kyurem's body was already ablaze and still it stared apathetically as white and grey smoke oozed from it. Boreas looked at the throneroom's exit and considered running for it, but he knew he couldn't get away in time; he could barely walk at all. Instead, he laid down calmly, almost with happiness. This was the end of his life, he could do nothing about that, and he would rather spend it thinking one last time about the good things from that life that with a panicky, futile flight.

He had made the right choice, he knew, and it was great relief. Even though it would cost him his life and probably that of his friends, it was the right choice. He just hoped Lucius and Selene would make it, wherever they were. He chuckled, imagining Selene annoying Lucius while sitting on his shoulder and Lucius insulting Selene, quibbling with each other as always. They certainly had the strangest friendship Boreas had ever seen.

He reminded himself of the annoying, childish Oddish Toxica had been, too, and how irritated and jealous he'd been whenever Octa spent time with her instead of him. He giggled as he recalled her attempt to impress Octa by imitating his accent really poorly. She had grown into a good friend as they had both grown out of their childish quibbling, and into a very fun Vileplume to be with. He was glad she and Octa had made up before the end.

It was with a warm smile on his face that he recalled his time with Octa. He had been like both a father and a brother to the lonely little Eevee he had rescued, and though they could fight like beasts, he had never had a dearer friend. They had stared death in the eyes together so many times and seen all of Unova together. Octa had distracted Boreas from his grief by telling him stories of his own family, followed him into Team Plasma's base even when they were fighting, they had gotten drunk together to celebrate their victory over the Gym Leader, and played in the pokémon musical together. Octa had listened to him talk on and on about Aqua in the days when he first met her and prevented him from killing himself when his whole life had collapsed around him not much later. They had come to blows about Octa's refusal to act on his feelings for Toxica, yet ended up laughing together and had fought for each other's lives deep underground. Boreas had supported Octa when he was deeply ashamed about giving up and argued with him to stop that shame from making him do stupid things. Finally he imagined Octa as he had last seen him: fighting bravely to make Boreas' plan work and telling him to go on, no matter what. Every memory with Octa was in the end a happy one.

As Kyurem became a floating ball of grey, fire and ice, Boreas thought about Aqua. He had never known it was possible to love another person so much. Imagining her laugh or her eyes was enough to set him on fire inside. He laughed heartily as he recalled a foolish young Glaceon jumping off a boat to talk to a pretty girl. He recalled how his cheek had burned when she had given him a peck on it and how perfect the world had seemed after she had first truly kissed him. He had stayed the night with her to support her as she told him about her dark past and they had passionately reunited after their violent breakup. Her disbelieving look when he had asked her to marry him and her delight when she realised he was serious, and how they had improvised their wedding on the spot and kissed in the middle of the great battle. The joy he felt whenever he was with her was life itself.

He looked up at the ball of energy about to explode and realised it had been a good life. He couldn't have asked for a better one.

There was a bright flash of light.

–

Octa stared up in amazement. Kyurem hadn't killed him, for reasons best known to itself, and while he was incredibly cold, he was still alive against all odds. Kyurem flew upwards, to the tower, at top speed.

Suddenly, it roared and writhed in mid-flight, flying chaotically as lightning, visible in the murky storm even from this distance, danced over its dark body. Octa gasped. He could barely believe it, but Boreas had really succeeded! Kyurem seemed to go mad in mid-air as lightning, ice, black and grey energy, danced over its body and seemed to dissolve it. It lost its shape and stopped flying on, hovering in mid-air as it turned into a sphere of black and grey.

The Sun broke through the clouds with amazing timing. The rain-filled sky reflected the Sunlight brightly like a thousand drops of gold, as did the top of the tower and the floating ball of energy that was once Kyurem, all gleaming with painfully bright gold to their dark-adjusted eyes.

Kyurem exploded in an enormous flash of energy and light, and a second later an ear-piercing explosion and shockwave hit and threw everyone to the ground. Octa's heart erupted with triumph. "BOREAS!" he shouted, holding up his blade in a triumphant salute into the tower's direction. "He did it! He did it!"

Toxica flew into an embrace with him the moment she got up, cheering happily and inarticulately for their friend. She even pulled a laughing Aqua into the hug as well, and after a moment of hesitation Octa hugged her too. He had been wrong to suspect her of being a traitor after all.

They let go of each other. "Wonderful," said a smiling Aqua. "My clever Boreas has really done it..."

The tower exploded with an immense fireball, blowing up completely and raining rubble over the battlefield. Octa's heart, ablaze with triumph and pride, froze instantly. He could only stare at the collapse of what little was left of the tower, along with the wall leading to it. "No... No..." He saw the horrified, shocked looks on Aqua's and Toxica's faces, and felt a tear trickling down from his eye. He wanted to tell them Boreas might've gotten away in time, to try to convince himself of it, but he knew it wasn't true. He knew it in his mind, but mainly felt it in his heart. It was even worse than his father's death, which hadn't truly sunk in yet. Boreas was dead.

Even the sight of Ghetsis' pokémon fleeing despite Giallo telling them to get back, the fiercely bright Sun shining on his back, and the disappearance of the suppressing feeling of the two legendaries on Plasma's side couldn't dispel the horrible sense of loss he felt.

But there was no time to grief now. He raised his voice to address everyone left on their side: Aqua and Toxica, his house, Esper, and Altaïr, most of whom were just staring up at the collapsing tower in wonder. "Everyone!" he spoke. "My friends, my family! An incredibly brave Glaceon died to give us this last chance of victory! The enemy is in disarray; they've seen their commander killed and no longer have the Kyurems to bolster their morale! Even the Sun itself is on our side, shining in their eyes and on our backs! This is our chance! Fight now! Fight for victory!" he lowered his voice, talking only to Aqua and Toxica. "Fight for Boreas."

Aqua echoed him as she wrapped herself in a wave, golden with the bright Sunlight's reflection, and together they charged Giallo's remaining pokémon, who were confused and scared by the tower's collapse and had to look straight into the low Sun to even see their enemies. Toxica was barely behind them as her flower greedily took the sunlight in as she ran, barraging their enemy with Solarbeams as they charged. "For Boreas!"

All the others followed them too, charging the terrified and half-blinded enemy with the bright Sun in their back and a conviction they were going to win in their hearts.

–

AUTHOR'S NOTES: This was a tough chapter to write. I've heard it said before that beginnings and endings are the hardest to write, but this ending (well, not the actual final chapter, but it's the ending climax) was much harder than the beginning. Because I didn't have anything to live up to with the beginning and if the first chapters were bad, there would be no harm done. But with the ending, it has to do justice to the rest of the story. I hope it did.

Surprisingly, Boreas' parts were the easiest. They were hard emotionally, because I've really come to like him and therefore it was hard to write his death, but still those parts flowed very easily from my mind into the chapter. I did get rather misty-eyed when writing Boreas' final bit after he has killed Ghetsis, though. (though part of that was likely because I was listening to youtube dot com slash watch?v=RH4dToXBnh0 and youtube dot com slash watch?v=Go33KOLL5V8 ) I've gotten rather attached to the little guy and it makes it hard to write his death, even one as heroic as this. I'll miss him, but his surprising adventures end here.

FEEDBACK: AvatarCat13: Q: Wow...Diego's quite the survivor!

A: Yeah, and so is Boreas. Not many would fight on with a spike through their chest.

Q: And the Equinox family fleeing...why can't they just stay and fight?

A: Panic for seeing their leader die combined with their new leader telling them to flee. Fortunately they didn't flee for long.

: Q: The ending... that was quite the spectacle my friend I think that there needs to be a drawing of Diego and Boreas having there final showdown

A: Well, you're welcome to make it. :p As is anyone else. Myself, while I have considered drawing some part of their final battle, I decided to focus my spare time writing the final bit of the story instead, so it definitely won't be until I'm done with it.

RattlezTheWaterMaster: Q: Hey, Spock! Sorry I couldn't tell you how awesome your story is turning out to be! I've been so busy. -.-

A: That's alright; glad you left a comment after all.

Q: I'd just really like to say how badaz Boreas is! He had a spike through his chest! I was like HOLY **** ******* ****** ****! Q.Q And the whole "How predictable, Diego." I was like WHHHAAAAAAT?!

A: I'm glad you liked Boreas at his most badass. You might say he saved the best for last.

Q: Dude, you have made the most epic fanfic of the freaking UNIVERSE! You shouldn't be surprised that it has become so popular. Keep up the good work, man! (O.O)

A: Wow, thanks.

Decimator1337: Q: The first half of the climax!?

A: Yes. Or you might call this chapter the true climax, if you like. I feel chapter 75 is a very climactic one, though.

Q: Sure, Capella's death was terrible, but seriously, Black's death is completely unforgivable. I hope you don't mind that small grudge. ;)

A: I have a feeling you might have a bigger grudge against me now...

Q: Why did Equinox turn to that idiot Gaius? Why didn't they turn to Brittanicus?

A: Well, he wasn't there, for one, but elsewhere in the battle (remember, they split themselves in three when they arrived; this group is only part of them). Furthermore, Gaius pulls a lot of weight and was already considered the logical successor.

hellfire lord: Q: Great, 2% more of crappy air (MAKE IT NITROGEN, AT LEAST THAT BLOWS UP).

A: ಠ_ಠ

TheGlaceonFanatic: Q: Yeah, as I said, the battle was epic! One of the things I especially liked was how Diego used his illusionary abilities to cover his attack etc. very creative!

A: Yeah, Diego is very tricky. After all, if he was just strong, Boreas could probably handle him; he's shown time and again he can beat much stronger opponents. It's quite fun to write this kind of trickery mirror-match.

Q: And wow, Boreas is certain tough! Being able to fight with such an injury! I wonder how it will affect him later...

A: Yeah, Boreas I incredibly tough, mainly because he was so determined. Sadly, though, there wasn't much of a later for him to be affected by it in. :(

Q: And awesome ending! That was certainly a way to end that battle. Though Boreas' dialogue was a bit well... cliche somehow, but in a good way, since the hero usually say these kind of dramatic things before ending the battle etc.

A: It's surprisingly hard to avoid clichés while doing these kinds of things. But I'm glad you liked his dialogue anyway.


	77. The Day that Changed the World

Chapter Seventy-Seven: The Day that Changed the World

Victory.

It was almost impossible to believe, but they had utterly defeated Team Plasma's far more powerful forces. As the low Sun shone on the Pokémon League and Team Plasma's castle, there was no-one there who wasn't amazed by how the battle had turned out.

Victory.

Many had died. There wasn't a single person, human or pokémon, who hadn't lost someone. Trainers, pokémon, friends, family members. In all that death, Aqua didn't think it was possible anyone felt worse than her. Yet there was only one word for it.

Victory.

Team Plasma still held all of Unova in its grip, even now that its headquarters were captured, and the resistance was nicely cooped up here in the Pokémon League for them to destroy. Yet, it was a stunning, crushing victory. Ghetsis, Zinzolin, Ryoku, and Bronius were dead, while Gorm, Rood, and Giallo had been taken prisoner, along with lots of grunts. What exactly had happened to the Elite Four, no-one knew. There were multiple stories going around about them, the most common of which was that they'd switched sides again when the Kyurems exploded, and had then quickly fled the battle before anyone could hold them accountable for their actions. Where they had gone, no-one knew; only that they weren't among the prisoners or the dead.

The greatest change was perhaps that everyone could feel the Kyurems were gone. For eight long months, the legendary on Team Plasma's side had pressed hard on everyone's minds, discouraging its enemies, encouraging its allies, and convincing those on neither side to support Team Plasma, and now suddenly its influence was gone. Aqua saw it in her allies. They finally had hope again.

Hope had rekindled the moment they saw the tower blow up. Most had no idea Boreas was in there, and wouldn't have cared much if they'd known, but everyone knew Ghetsis was in that tower. With the influence of the Kyurems suddenly gone along with Ghetsis, their courage had soared, while the enemy was in panicky disarray without their leader. Up near the tower's base, Ghetsis' pokémon had fled and left Giallo with his remaining steel-types, all of whom were almost blinded by the bright, low Sun behind their enemies. In the glorious charge of hope and fury Octa had led, they had captured Giallo himself.

Everywhere in the castle, the same scenario had taken place. Fleeing members of the resistance had caught their courage again and returned to fight once more. With the added luck that the castle lay north of the League and therefore in most places the Sun's blinding light was to their advantage, team Plasma found itself in a much harder spot than before. Aqua and the others who had just taken Giallo prisoner had descended the castle to attack the enemy from behind: as much as they'd wanted to look for Boreas' body, they knew they had to press their advantage and honour his sacrifice by delivering their victory. Finally, somewhere in the western part of the castle, a grunt couldn't handle it any more and had been the first to flee. His fear had infected others, and soon a huge part of Plasma was routing. Apparently some had even switched sides in the midst of battle and joined the trainers against their former comrades.

Sage Ryoku, fighting in the eastern part of the castle, had declared himself Team Plasma's new leader and regained control over much of their forces for a while. The grunts in this part of the castle regrouped and fought well, and for a moment it had even seemed as if Plasma might win after all. But then the news had come that Ryoku was dead, and chaos had broken out in the enemy ranks. Even now, Aqua wasn't sure how Ryoku had died, but the important thing was that the enemy had routed, and the remaining Sage surrendered not long after.

Aqua tried to focus on the great victory and their new hope, like everyone else. She tried to share in the triumphant feeling that was going around. It was easy enough to pretend she was glad they'd won; she'd always been good at acting cheerful even when she felt bad. Even so, if she was honest, she would have rather had a defeat Boreas had survived than this victory without him. On some moments, she felt numb inside and didn't believe Boreas was dead at all, half-expecting him to stand just around any corner with a smug, mischievous grin on his face, asking her if she had _really_ thought he was dead. But on other moments the horrible truth began to sink in. She would never see him again. She would have to live her life completely alone, and a black pit of despair opened before her. Her broken leg with its improvised cast didn't hurt remotely as badly as that knowledge.

She tried to cheer herself up: she wouldn't be _completely_ alone. Toxica was still here for her, and even if she was no substitute for Boreas she was a good friend. But she was all Aqua had left; even Selene had disappeared. Her body hadn't been found yet, but with every second the chance she and Lucius had survived lowered.

Aqua had been unsure of what to do, overwhelmed with Boreas' death, and had so far just walked after Toxica a bit, and Toxica had been helping Octa find the rest of his family. They had many dead to mourn, among them Octa's father and his brother Marcus Aurelius, and were generally quiet and sombre, which fit well with Aqua's own mood.

Gaius was addressing the others on a large courtyard in the castle, and Aqua really couldn't bring up the attention to listen to him. Her thoughts went to Boreas instead every time. She'd never see his cheeky grin again. She'd never have to wonder if he had gone insane again, like when he had asked her to marry him in battle. She'd never share a laugh with him again.

Anger welled up in her. Idiot humans. Why had they drawn Boreas into their stupid conflict? If it wasn't for them, he would still be alive... But she knew that wasn't fair. This was just as much about pokémon than about humans. She sighed. If only he had been a little less heroic. She felt so horribly alone without him, she wanted to follow him. She knew they wouldn't be together that way... But at least she wouldn't have to go on without him.

She tried to distract herself from these thoughts by listening to Gaius. It seemed he was admitting he was an idiot to everyone, which she supposed was a good thing. He said he would refuse any nomination of him as the new leader of their house, which she also supposed was a good thing. She really found she couldn't care less about all this, though.

"Hey," whispered Toxica, "how are you holding up?"

"I've been better." Aqua was a bit startled at how bitter she sounded.

Toxica softly touched her shoulder. "I'm so sorry for you... You'll really feel better eventually, you know, even if it seems now that you'll never stop being sad. Time heals all wounds, even this one. Eventually, things turn out alright."

"Yes," said Aqua to stop Toxica's babbling, while she inwardly thought: _Bullshit. This will never be alright._ There was no way a world without Boreas would ever be a happy place. And he wouldn't be coming back either, so the only way this would ever be alright would be if she could travel back in time and experience the blissful year she'd had with him again. Although she had wasted far too much of that time fighting with him and not being there. She should've cherished what little time they had together, stayed with him all the time. She would never get over her loss... And if somehow she did, if she eventually ended up feeling over him the way she had gotten over Lothario, wouldn't that be even worse? It seemed so terrible to just forget him like that. She couldn't imagine herself being so unfaithful she'd stop feeling horrible about it and maybe even love someone else...

She realised she was crying about him for the first time. So far she had kept her grief hidden inside, but now the tears ran through her fut. She quickly dried them and took on a neutral mask. She really didn't want to cry in front of Octa's even smugger relatives. She tried to pay attention to them instead. It seemed they were discussing who should be their new leader. Some names were mentioned, but no-one actually nominated anyone, and no-one no-one put themselves forth either.

Until Livia spoke up. "I nominate my brother, Octa!"

The word "What" was uttered by a lot of people. Octa among them. They all talked through each other. Someone pointed out he wasn't even a member of their house any more.

"Who cares?" said Livia. "Today we reached victory because of Octa and Toxica! Octa is braver and wiser than anyone else here, and Toxica is every bit as noble as any of us. I believe he would make a great Lord if we reinstated him, and would cause a fresh wind to blow into our house at last."

"Livia," said Octa, "I am very grateful for this, but I do not want this honour. I'm not even a part of the house any more."

"We need you, Octa," said Livia. "We need your fresh look on things, we need your bravery and your wisdom. We wouldn't have won today without you and Toxica. Who else wants Octa as our new leader?!"

There was a moment of silence as they thought about it, then agreeing voices spoke up. More and more of them. Soon, most of them were cheering for Octa, though a few were booing him.

"See?" said Livia. "We want you to be our leader. Will you let us down?"

Octa looked around unsurely and made eye-contact with Toxica, who nodded. "No," he said finally, "I shan't let down my house-"

"Long live Lord Octavianus the fifth!" cheered Livia, and many voices followed. "May his days be blessed."

All of them bowed for their new leader, who looked around in amazement. Toxica too made a bow, with a smile. "Congratulations, my lord," she teased.

"Please, I am honoured, but let me finish speaking," said Lord Octavianus. "I shan't let down my house, but I do not want this honour. I left the house not just to escape the judgement of others, but that of myself. If there is no other way I shall accept this honour, but I ask you to elect an even more suited candidate."

"There is no-one better suited!" Livia argued.

"Yes, there is, my dear sister: you."

"Me?!"

"Yes, you. Livia is far wiser and braver than me, and has the advantage of actually being a member of the house. I believe she, like me, is willing to let a new wind blow through our house, but she also has a healthy respect for our traditions. When the order to retreat was given, she was the only one who remained with me. If you are willing, have her as a leader instead."

After they considered it for a moment, there were many cheers, so Octa said: "Then I resign as our leader and nominate Livia as my successor."

Livia squinted. "Don't think you're rid of it that easily. I want your help and your advice. Yours, and Toxica's. I will accept only if you promise you'll help me."

Octa and Toxica both agreed.

"Very well, then I accept."

Now it was Octa's turn to start a cheer. "Long live Lady Livia the seventh! May her days be blessed."

There was much cheering again, this time with much less booing mixed in. Livia was about to begin giving some kind of speech when Octa quietly said to her:

"I'm sorry, my dear sister, but I have to leave for now. It is time I honoured the hero who has truly brought us this victory. I shall go find his body, that we might bury him with the greatest honour."

Lady Livia nodded. "I understand. Go quickly; I have to think of something to say to them."

Octa retreated quietly amidst the cheers, and Aqua followed him. "I'm coming with you," she said.

"I do not think it would be wise," said Octa sadly. "Boreas' remains are likely to be gravely maimed after that explosion... I don't think he would want you to see him like that. Go to the pokécenter and have yourself healed, that you may remember him as he was in life, rather than in death."

Aqua rolled her eyes. "No, Octa, I'm coming with you. I want to see his corpse, no matter how badly mangled. Or I'll torment myself with the idea that he could still somehow be alive until the end of my days. Besides, I owe him at least this much."

Octa nodded. "Alright, I understand."

–

Aqua clambered through the grim rubble that filled a courtyard. She and Octa had been searching for quite a while. First they had searched in the ruins of the tower itself, but they had only found the Light Stone and the twisted remains of N's golden throne and Ghetsis there; no Boreas. This was not all too unusual, as the explosion had scattered debris of the tower over a large area and Boreas was presumably among it. It just meant a larger area to search. Aqua and Octa drew comfort from each other while searching, even though they said as good as nothing to each other. They had never really gotten along, but right now their love for Boreas bound them.

"I wonder if he suffered much..." said Aqua finally as they combed through the rubble in the courtyard bit by bit.

"I doubt it..." said Octa. "The explosion would've killed him before he even felt the pain. I'm sure his death was quite painless..."

They passed one of the large, ornamental shields that hung on the walls everywhere; it was blackened and dented in from the explosion. They nearly passed it by when Aqua suddenly noticed it was lying on top of something. She felt ice-cold. "Octa..." she said, pointing.

A single, badly burnt, broken hindpaw and a burnt tail which missed its tip stuck out from under the shield. Aqua suddenly couldn't hold her tears in and wailed loudly. The true extent of her loss only now hit her. Boreas was gone forever, only this burnt piece of meat left of him.

Octa bowed his head solemnly. "Farewell Boreas, brilliant and brave,

a Glaceon too good to be stuck in a grave..."

A very small giggle almost made it through Aqua's tears; how like Octa to think up an epitaph for him on the spot. She wanted to say something, anything, but was too torn up with grief and tears to do so. Octa softly embraced her, and they cried together. After a moment, he let go.

"Why don't you go back?" he proposed tearfully. "You have seen his body... But you needn't see all of it. I shall take it back myself."

But Aqua couldn't leave from Boreas' side. She shook her head firmly.

"I see," said Octa kindly. "You should do this the way that feels best to you... Help me move the shield off of him..."

They slowly moved the heavy, charred piece of steel off of Boreas, expecting to see something resembling meat that's been left on the grill far too long below. But instead they found Boreas protected from the heat of the explosion by the shield, his body still intact. The end of his paw and tail were only burned because they had stuck out from under the shield. The rest of his fur was still blue and unburned.

However, a metal spike had stabbed right through his chest, which was died red with blood. He had many smaller wounds too, including a bad-looking over on his head, and much of his body was bruised. Lying below him were the remnants of several large pillows; they had been partially burned and ruptured by the impact and were flat now. Despite his many wounds, Boreas' face looked peaceful; there even was a small smile around his lips. Seeing him looking more or less intact, Aqua's heart made a jump of joy, and she held her own breath as Octa rushed to listen to Boreas'. But far too much time passed. Octa shook his head sadly and got up, and Aqua sank into despair again.

"Clever to the very end..." said Octa, indicating the protective shell of the shield and pillows Boreas was encased himself in. "The explosion's shock was still too great to survive, however..."

_Or he died of his wounds while we were wasting time fighting and listening to Gaius talk..._ added Aqua in her thoughts, which made her feel even more horrible. She wondered how he'd received those wounds in the first place... And how he had managed to win from Kyurem. But most of all, she wondered if he would still have been alive if they'd been here earlier.

"I-I wonder what his final moments were like..." said Aqua, crying slightly. "He looks so peaceful..."

–

_Past_

Boreas looked up at the ball of energy about to explode and realised it had been a good life. He couldn't have asked for a better one.

There was a bright flash of light. It came from outside, and a moment later there was a huge, thundering noise and the tower shook. Boreas wondered if it was the other Kyurem exploding; this one would do the same any second now, and he was at peace with that. However, looking up at it, he saw something else: behind it hung one of the large, ornamental Team Plasma shields. He had an idea, incredibly enough, and got up, cringing against the pain. He was at peace if he would die now, and knew it almost certainly wouldn't work, but the small chance of staying alive was worth not lying down and spending his final moments in a somewhat pleasant way. He would probably still die, but at least his body might be preserved better and still be recognisable, which might help Aqua move on if she was still alive.

He pulled Ghetsis' body off the throne, grabbed the two large pillows, and dragged them over to the wall. He fired an Ice Beam behind the shield, snap-freezing the wire that held it up, so the shield fell down. Knowing he had only seconds, he put the pillows behind him, up against the wall, and drew the shield up in front of him, hiding behind it entirely and freezing himself to it and the pillows. The shield would absorb most of the blast and he might be thrown clear of the explosion as it destroyed the tower instead of being crushed against an unbreaking wall. Maybe he would even survive the impact on the ground if he landed on his back, where the pillows would offer some protection. It was a huge long-shot, but there was little harm done with it.

If he didn't make it, it had still been a good life. A moment when he and Aqua had laughed about something until they cried came to mind. He couldn't eve recall what they had been laughing at, but it was a happy memory.

There was a blindingly bright light, a terrible impact, searing heat, and then nothing.

–

_Present_

Aqua felt overwhelmed with sorrow. She really would have to face this life alone. She just couldn't think of anything that would ever make her happy again. Crying loudly, she embraced Boreas' lifeless body, sobbing on his cold shoulder, her ear in his neck. "What will I ever do without you?" she cried. "I can't live like that..."

Of course, he remained silent. As he always would. Aqua grieved, now softly, still holding him. If she let him go, it would somehow make it even more irreversible, and she just couldn't face that right now.

Very faintly, on the edge of her hearing, she imagined hearing an incredibly weak thump in his neck. Why did she torture herself like this? The more she had these kinds of thoughts, the worse the truth hurt. She was all alone in the world.

But she perceived another thump, and another quickly after. She held her breath and pressed her large, sensitive ear even closer to his neck. It took almost three seconds, but there was another weak thump; and it wasn't her own heartbeat, as it was much louder and faster. Boreas' was incredibly weak and irregular and seemed like it could just stop at any moment, but it was there!

"By the depths!" Aqua instantly sat up and formed an Aqua Ring around Boreas. She had to keep him alive as long as she could, and this would give him some energy to survive a little longer. "He's alive! Octa, go get anyone with medical skills, right now!"

"Aqua..." said Octa, in terribly sad voice. The smug git clearly thought she was crazy.

"NOW!" she shouted. "His heart's still beating, but won't be for much longer, so GO!"

"I'm sorry... But 'tis-"

"No, it's not my imagination, I really heard his heart beat! My ears are a lot bigger than yours, so trust me, please!"

"I shall." Octa at least wasted no more time, giving her the benefit of the doubt and racing off.

Aqua was left alone with a near-dead Boreas, working hard to make the healing veil of water as strong as possible. It was obviously nowhere near enough to save him, but it might just be enough to keep him alive for an extra minute or so needed to reach a nurse. It had to be. "You're going to be alright, Boreas," said Aqua. "Really, you are. Your heart is going to keep beating until the nurse comes and rescues you, do you hear me? You're not going to leave me behind, you'll stay with me. You're going to wake up and give me that charming little smile of yours." She rambled on like this, trying to convince herself it would somehow help.

–

Boreas woke up. That was strange. Opening his eyes in wonder, he found himself in a comfortable bed in the pokécenter. He was alive! He could barely believe it. An annoying pain in his chest let him know for certain: he really was alive. He took a deep breath, finding it incredibly enjoyable to have two working lungs again.

"Good morning."

Boreas startled and looked for the voice's source. An attractive Umbreon lay in the next bed in the room. "Febby?!" he said joyously. "You're alive?!"

She smiled. "Don't sound so surprised, I'm not the one going around blowing up legendary pokémon while he's in the room with them."

Boreas began to laugh, but felt the laughter die in his throat as he realised Aqua, Octa, and Toxica had probably not been as lucky as Febby and him. "Yeah... I knew you might survive, but your chances didn't seem good."

Febby shrugged. "Seems lady Luck was on both our sides. Anyway, I shouldn't be wasting your time when the others are ageing ten years every second with worry." She shouted: "He's awake!"

Boreas tried to quench the hope that rose in him, fearing disappointment. "What... Who?"

Febby just smiled and winked and pointed to the door.

Boreas turned to look, but at that moment a heavy weight fell on top of him and before he knew what was happening he was being passionately kissed by a pair of blue lips. His heart was overflowing with joy: Aqua was alive too! As their lips parted, Aqua and Boreas laughed and babbled incoherently, too happy to pay attention to what they or the other were saying, interspersing with more kisses. Finally, Boreas' chest began putting a bit of a dampener on his joy. "My love, I'm so glad you're alright... But I don't think I'm quite recovered yet. Could you get off me?"

Aqua rolled off of him with a mirthful laugh and put her front paws around him. "As long as I still get to hold you."

"Well, then perhaps you now have time to notice us too?"

Octa and Toxica were standing next to his bed too. He said their names in sheer joy and big grins appeared on their faces. The next moment he was hugged from three sides and trying his best to hug back with only two arms. "Wonderful to see you again! What happened? How did you all survive Kyurem exploding?" He had never been so happy.

"My dear fellow," laughed Octa, "Kyurem began flying to the throneroom moments before it began exploding. It must've known the danger to its master when a hero like you approached!"

Boreas chuckled and blushed. "Don't call me that."

"But you are," laughed Aqua as she nuzzled him, "and if you ever do something that heroic again and survive it, I'll kill you."

Laughing and celebrating with his friends, Boreas suddenly realised they weren't all there. "Where is Lucius?" he asked with sudden fear. "Where is Selene?"

Octa sighed. "Well, I'm afraid they're-"

"Right here, pup," said Lucius, coming through the door with Selene on his shoulder.

"-alive as well." Octa rolled his eyes theatrically.

"You finally woke up," said Selene. "It was about time, that was a really long nap."

"He was-" began Lucius, "oh, never mind."

Boreas greeted them warmly, happy in the knowledge so many of them had made it. If only Black hadn't died... "This is so wonderful," he said. "I have so many questions for you all! Lucius, Selene, where were you?!"

Selene said: "We were going to the tower, but got l-"

Lucius interrupted. "Figured you guys'd have Ghetsis under control and decided to go after that bastard Ryoku instead."

"We did?" said Selene. "Of course, I remember now. We looked for Ryoku."

Lucius grinned. "Found him too, we did. He was beating a bunch of guys, but we came in, chased off him Garchomp, and killed a bunch of his grass-types. It was easy, really. But then we were surprised by his Tangrowth..."

–

_Past_

Lucius fought against a thousand vines. They pulled Selene away from him and wound around him. He had burnt a great many to a cinder already, but Tangrowth had a seemingly endless supply of the things. They had quickly wound around his neck and each of his limbs, choking him to death despite his struggles. They pulled hard on his limbs, making it feel like they were going to tear off. He fought hard but couldn't breathe and quickly began to black out.

But then, the vines writhed and let him go as they were suddenly on fire. Lucius was too weakened to do much and fell on the ground. Tangrowth took a few steps back and he was out of the mass of vines, able to see what was going on: Tangrowth was on fire. It was fighting a Charmeleon that had seemingly come out of completely nowhere. It wasn't the only thing that had suddenly appeared: more pokémon and their trainers were fighting Ryoku now as well.

Lucius looked for Selene, and crawled to her when he saw her lie about as well. She was still breathing. "Hey, birdbrain, d'you know what the hell's going on?"

Selene looked around in bewilderment. "No, except- don't you see something unusual?"

"No."

"Precisely. What you don't see is the tower, which is gone."

Lucius looked at where it should be and saw nothing. "Gone?!" he laughed. "Mew's splanch, I guess Ghetsis was in it too! That's why all these idiots came back to fight, and why those grunts are fleeing!"

"Yeah," laughed Selene, "I guess the glove's on the other foot now, hmm?"

"You said it. C'mon, let's get them." Lucius tried to get up, but fell down again, nearly asphyxiated as he was and with his legs still poorly bled through. "In a moment. I think these guys have things under control right now."

Selene agreed. "Yeah, I don't think we should be stealing their glory."

At first, things seemed to go their way. But Ryoku barked orders both to his pokémon and to fleeing grunts, and Plasma's disarrayed forces got more organised again and struck back against the trainers. They were soon starting to get driven back, past Lucius and Selene. Lucius began to get up to fight with them, but he felt a wing on his paw. "Let's play dead for a while," said Selene.

"No," grunted Lucius.

"C'mon, it'll be fun."

"What's wrong with you? This is no time to be goofing off."

"Just play dead; trust me."

"Hmpf, fine," grumbled Lucius as he lay down. "Can't believe I'm following _your_ advice, I must be just as mad..."

"Quiet, here they come."

The trainers and their pokémon rapidly retreated past the Houndoom and the Honchkrow, some of them fleeing, some still fighting the enemy. Team Plasma's pokémon passed them by too.

Ryoku was ordering several grunts about now that they had pushed the resistance back. "Tell everyone you find that I'm taking over command of Team Plasma, and order them to stand their ground and stop fleeing; those who don't will be considered traitors. Remind them we outnumber the enemy."

Lucius growled angrily, hearing Capella's murderer organise Team Plasma. If he was allowed to continue, Plasma could still win, as they did indeed outnumber the resistance; they were just losing because they were panicked without their leader. Now this jerk was going to take Ghetsis' place? Lucius so wished he could get to Ryoku to avenge Capella and prevent the battle from turning again in a single move, but of course that was impossible with Team Plasma's pokémon between him and...

Actually, he realised there was nothing between him and Ryoku: the pokémon had all passed by him and Selene, thinking they were dead. He looked at Selene, astonished she'd actually had a plan and done something smart.

She chuckled and nodded. "Well, go get him, then."

Lucius grinned meanly and got up, approaching the skeleton-like Sage ordering grunts to spread the word that he was their new leader. Lucius surrounded himself with a big ring of dark fire as one of the grunts pointed to him and made Ryoku turn around in fear and call for backup. But it was too late for him.

"This is for Capella, you son of a bitch."

–

_Present_

Boreas felt slightly put off by the obvious glee in Lucius' voice as he retold how he had killed Ryoku. He supposed he shouldn't judge, as he had killed Ghetsis himself; but he couldn't imagine himself telling about killing Ghetsis with such joy. In fact, he now noticed he felt a little guilty about the killing itself. The memory of Ghetsis' fear as Boreas froze him to death was one that filled him with odd regret.

"Are you alright, my love?" asked Aqua. Boreas noticed Lucius had stopped talking and they were all looking at him.

As he looked at his friends, all alive and well, he felt happiness dispel his regret and realised this wasn't the time to feel bad; they had won, and except for Black they had all survived it. He smiled. "I'm going to be just fine."

They all talked much more about all that had happened to them and told him about their parts in the great battle as Boreas ate a breakfast. Boreas too told his friends about how he had duelled Diego to within a hair's breadth of death, how tempted he had been to give up, and how he had gone on and killed Ghetsis. The others told him much more, and they all talked mirthfully, glad to still be together. At first Boreas kept up with their stories but after a while the words of the others went into his one ear, and out again the other. They slowly turned into a background noise.

–

Boreas woke up with a sleeping Aqua's arms around him and his friends gone. He felt a little ashamed that he'd apparently fallen asleep while they were talking, but they'd probably understand. After all, he had quite a number of wounds to recover from. He was glad Aqua had stayed with him and hugged her back gently. She stirred a little and mumbled softly, half-opening an eye.

"Shh," he said softly, "go back to sleep, my love."

"Hmm..." she mumbled half-asleep, sounding worried. "Boreas, stay with me..."

"Of course," he whispered, "I'll stay with you always."

She cuddled him a little tighter and smiled beautifully in her sleep. "...Good..."

Closing his eyes again, Boreas whispered: "We'll be together forever."

–

25 January of that year was a date well remembered by the history books as the day the Plasma War's outcome was decided. A dark, violent, bloody day, yet also the day of the great victory; a day of great sorrow when hope died along with its heroes, and great joy as unexpected other heroes rekindled it from its ashes. A day of death, but also of life.

The resistance had many dead to mourn, and Black was probably the greatest loss. The new Champion had been a beacon of hope to them all, but his loss was felt strongest by his pokémon and his friends Cheren, Bianca, and White. He was buried by them in a small ceremony on the edge of the mountain pass with the Light Stone. Three of the Gym Leaders hadn't made it either, and many more lives were to be mourned.

Yet their victory was great. They had captured Team Plasma's headquarters and their entire leadership. The first thing that was done after the battle was to truly liberate the thousands of pokémon found in the depths of the Castle, who had been used to build it, to power it, and some were trained to fight for Team Plasma. Many of these pokémon decided to join them, and many of them found a friendly new trainer who had lost pokémon in the battle. Some of them even found their old trainers, who had thought them lost forever.

Unova was still ruled by Team Plasma, but they were in disarray without the Sages. At the same time, the disappearance of the influence of the legendaries made many of their supporters turn away from them, and the crushing defeat Team Plasma had suffered at the League showed everyone they were not invincible.

With the Sages dead or captured, many Team Plasma members with higher functions declared themselves to be the new Sages. In fact, several of them did so in each city. How many self-proclaimed Sages there were a few weeks after the battle of the League, no-one could say, but there were at least fifty of them. Ironically, thanks to the information captured with the castle, the resistance knew far more about Team Plasma than any of these new Sages did. The only thing all of them saw eye to eye on was that the resistance had to be destroyed, and a day after the battle of the League, the trainline with Opelucid was cut off as Plasma intended to hunger the resistance out, trapped as they were now in their distant stronghold in the middle of the wintry Black Mountains.

Fortunately, there were several months worth of supplies at the League, but even so the connection had to be restored. A plan was hatched to send a small force south through Victory Road to Opelucid in order to restore the train again. To their surprise, Boreas and his friends found themselves volunteering for a second trip through a wintrous Victory Road, and Cheren, Bianca and their pokémon went with them. The journey was hard, but this time they knew the way and didn't get lost. Since spring was approaching the landscape got less barren near the end. On a lovely day in April, they once again saw the rough, but pretty landscape of Route 10. Boreas found he could easily joke with Aqua about his stupidity the last time they had been here now.

After a journey through the wild canyons, dense forests, and flowering fields of Route 10, they came upon Opelucid. Team Plasma's rule had weakened significantly over the past three months; most of the people who had proclaimed themselves the new Sages were dead by now, usually assassinated by their peers as Team Plasma had fallen to infighting and split into many different groups all calling themselves Team Plasma. The populace of Unova no longer supported them and protests and resistance were common, held back only by the fear of retaliation.

When Boreas and his friends found Opelucid so tired of its incompetent, quibbling Team Plasma taskmasters, they began work to organise a revolt. The northern train station, where passengers and goods had once regularly gone back and forth to the League, was under heavy guard despite all Team Plasma's troubles. While fomenting an uprising, they also worked to play out the different factions of Team Plasma in the city against each other.

On the final day of April, their plan came to fruition. A conflict between three factions of Team Plasma escalated an hour before the uprising started. Team Plasma found themselves not only fighting each other, but also having a full-scale revolution on their hands, and were forced to draw most of their guard away from the northern station. This allowed Boreas and his friends to defeat the remaining guards and send a single train north to the League; at that point it didn't matter if Team Plasma reconquered the station, as the train could be powered from the League just as well, and even if they sabotaged the tracks, the rest of the resistance - returning in the train - would just stop the train a few kilometres before the city and walk the rest of the way.

With the city rising up against them and the resistance on their way, most of Team Plasma fled Opelucid. When the train arrived the resistance was welcomed as liberators into an already free city. The celebrations lasted many days.

With Opelucid liberated, the resistance could finally get out of their besieged Pokémon League. The Gym Leaders decided to return to their own cities in secret to help them throw Team Plasma off, just like Opelucid. Some of the others decided to stay in Opelucid, some to defend it and some because they were tired of fighting, while some spread out over Unova to help the Gym Leaders reclaim the cities, or to help the smaller towns throw off Team Plasma. There was fear for a while that Opelucid would be directly attacked by Team Plasma, as many of the new Sages said they would do so, but in the end all the various splinters of Team Plasma were far too busy with their internal power struggle and keeping some amount of order to commit to such an attack, even though there was less infighting between them now that they had all been frightened by the liberation of Opelucid.

It was now for the first time that Boreas and his friends had to split up. Octa and Toxica had given Livia their word they would help and she called on them to help her take back their home, which had been confiscated by Team Plasma after the house of Equinox had come to the resistance's aid. Lucius and Selene went with Cheren to liberate the capital while Boreas and Aqua decided to go to Nuvema Town with Bianca, as there was no Gym Leader there to organise the liberation.

It was the first time Boreas had seen Nuvema Town since his brother had showed it to him on the day his family had died. He recalled it far happier and more carefree; now there were now no pokémon at all in the town and most people stayed fearfully inside. Team Plasma had a heavy presence here, but the population was too small to be of much help against them. With Bianca and professor Juniper they tried to find a way to chase Team Plasma from the town, but their progress was slow. For a while, the task seemed impossible; Unova was so big, most of it could still be in Plasma's hands ten years from now.

But then hopeful news came, as Nacrene and Nimbasa had liberated themselves. It strengthened everyone's hope, but a true solution to their problems didn't appear until Octa arrived in Nuvema, about half his house with him. With their help, Team Plasma could finally be removed from Nuvema.

–

Boreas found himself staring at the forested edge of town. It was evening on a day in early June with strong wind and variable weather. Yet the occasional shower hadn't put a dampener on the town's celebrations; it had only been yesterday that Sage Pete had been forced to lay down his command over the city, after all. Bianca and professor Juniper were hard at work to get people used to the idea of being friends with pokémon again, and were going to teach them how to handle pokémon well. Boreas, Aqua, and Octa would move on tomorrow, going to Castelia to help Lucius and Selene. But for now, they could relax and enjoy themselves at the celebrations.

And Boreas kept looking at the forest. He had done so a lot during the month he had been here, always wondering if he'd still know the way, and what his family's old burrow would be like now, but he'd always been too busy to act on such curiosity. But now was the perfect time.

"Aqua, Octa," he said, "will you excuse me for a while? I need to see something."

Octa raised an eyebrow. "What do you need to see, my dear fellow?"

"Home," said Boreas.

"I understand," nodded Aqua. "I'll go with you, if you want."

"So shall I, my dear fellow."

Boreas smiled. "Thanks. It would be nice to have you there too."

They walked to the town's edge. Boreas looked for the house he had stolen a sausage from, but almost didn't recognise it. "Looks so much smaller," he laughed as he finally saw it. He could now easily have climbed through the window by himself to steal sausage if he wanted.

Feeling like a little Eevee again, Boreas ran up the grassy slope to the shrubs at the edge of the forest. He had to be quick, of course, as the humans would turn him into cheese and eat him if they saw him, he recalled with a chuckle. The origins of the tasty yellow stuff from a picnic basket their mother had once stolen from a bunch of humans had been a frequently debated topic among him and his brothers.

The shrubs hadn't shrunk, oddly enough; they had been allowed to run rampant in the past two years and grown huge, and would still easily let him hide himself. He looked back to the celebrating town basking in the evening Sun. "Look," he said with a wink to a laughing Aqua and Octa, "a herd of humans."

He led them on through the forest. He could still easily recall the way, though he felt like a giant and went about as fast walking as he could've run as an Eevee, so he proceeded quickly. Left at this tree, a little right at that tree, and over this small hill...

Was a beautiful patch of flowers. There was no sign remaining of the massacre that had occurred here so long ago. The small hillock was overgrown with gorgeous flowers of many colours that enjoyed the summery heat. The burrow was still there, modified heavily and showing the signs of several species of pokémon inhabiting it at different times. It didn't smell like anyone lived there right now, but something clearly had last spring.

Octa and Aqua stood next to him. "It's beautiful," said Aqua.

"Indeed," said Octa. "To think this is where we first met each other..."

Boreas nodded. He almost wanted to ask Octa to go stand where he had stood then, but he didn't; he figured it might bring back bad memories, as it hadn't been a joyful moment. He smiled happily at both Octa and Aqua, glad to have come back to this place and seen it once more. "Come," he said, "let's get back to the party."

–

AUTHOR'S NOTES: THIS ISN'T THE FINAL CHAPTER! There, now that I've said the most important thing so you all know it, let's get to the author's notes:

I know what you're likely thinking: "you filthy, lying bastard, you said he was dead! Not just in the chapter, but also in the annotations, and in the responses to our questions!" The answer is, of course: yes, I did. I don't know where you got the idea that I always speak the truth in these notes; usually I do, but not always. Last chapter they were mostly lies. There's a good reason for that, of course: I could hardly tell the truth. I could've said nothing about it, but then it would've been obvious I was avoiding the elephant in the room, and since the only reason I would do that would be to hide the fact Boreas was still alive, that would've been akin to just telling the truth. I could've just done no author's notes for the chapter, but if I really killed off Boreas, I would certainly have something to say about it, so that'd be highly suspicious too. I could've crafted my language so that what I literally said was true, but that it seemed like I was talking about Boreas being dead... But that would've been hard to do and likely stood out quite a bit. Lying and claiming he's dead was the best option.

I never truly planned to kill Boreas off; I like him too much not to give him a happy end. I certainly considered killing off one of the main characters (though never three of them, like it seemed had happened last chapter), but in the end I decided I couldn't kill any of them. Even Febby, whose death I had planned for a while, ended up surviving because I just couldn't get it to feel right when I wrote chapter 73. I'm not as cruel to my characters as you might think.

For a very long time, the story was intended to end with chapter 77. Chapter 76 would have Ghetsis being defeated and 77 would be a sort of epilogue chapter showing what happened to the characters afterwards. However, this was planned when part 11 was still based on the game (in the original plan, Caitlin would've been defeated in chapter 70, then part 11 would start with the team entering Team Plasma's castle and getting stopped by six of the seven sages, when the Gym Leaders show up and fight them. The team would then continue through Team Plasma's castle until they reach N in chapter 74 (no idea how I was planning to fill chapters 71-73 with just them walking through the castle, really), and battle and catch Reshiram, who is sent to the PC instead of becoming a part of the team. They fight N in chapter 75 (this was planned before Diego had a big role) and then Ghetsis shows up and they fight and beat him in chapter 76 like in the game. Obviously, that plan got changed rather massively somewhere when I was writing part six and realised it was nowhere near good enough, especially as I began to plan part eight and decided on the Plasma war and such.

However, even after part 11 completely changed in my planning, the fic was still planned to end with just one chapter after the climax of chapter 76. However, I really thought about what exactly would happen in that chapter when I was in Austria last summer, and realised I had far too much to do for a single chapter, with ending the battle, Boreas turning up alive, and the further course of the war in addition to the originally planned epilogue idea. Plus, I'd rather people got to shout at me for saying Boreas was dead when he wasn't before the story ends. I considered shortening the battle by one chapter so that the climax would take place in 75, but not only did that make the distribution of events in the final battle much harder to do, it also broke the pattern of Boreas and Diego having a battle on each chapter divisible by 25, as their final showdown would go to chapter 74. I preferred to break the pattern of the parts each being seven chapters; mainly because I had planned the final battle out over five chapters (72-76), not four, and it would be hard enough to do as I planned without changing that. So, in conclusion, there is one final chapter still coming, making part eleven the only one of eight chapters.

I hope you don't mind that I'm skipping quite a lot of time in the second part of this chapter (almost five months). I don't think there would be much value in writing these events out as full chapters (with the possible exception of Boreas and his friends infiltrating Opelucid and working to liberate it, but I decided not to go with that), as it happens after the climax of the story, they are less exciting than what we've already seen, and the villains are much weaker.

Finally, I would like to remind you all that The Surprising Adventures of a Glaceon in Unova has a page on tvtropes which is really in big need of being updated...

FEEDBACK: bloodyrosethorns: Q: NOOOO! LUCIUS! SELENE! I shall miss the weird and snarky comments...*sniffle*

A: Hope you're glad they survived. I was glad to see some people who were sad about them too, even though the focus of the chapter obviously lay on Boreas' apparent death.

Q: Overall, I truly enjoyed reading your work, death, drama, adventure and everything inbetween. It made me feel as if I were watching them through a transparent movie screen. I'm glad I stumbled upon Boreas and Octa so long ago. It's kind of hard to believe this fic is nearly over, but I sincerely thank you for taking the time to come up with it all and for sharing it for everyone to read.

A: Thank you for the thanking and for all the kind words. Writing this was an awesome experience and it will feel very weird when it truly is all over.

RattlezTheWaterMaster: Q: Nooo! You didn't kill Selene and Lucias, did you?

A: Nope :3

Q: I'm ok with Boreas' death because I knew I was going to happen... a loooong time ago. ›_‹

A: Well, your expectations were wrong. To be fair, I fed them quite a bit with false foreshadowing.

hellfire lord: Q: One question, IS both Boreas AND Diego dead.  
>Diego's death is more unlikely than Boreas. Boreas got incinerated (with small chance that a Deus Ex Machina came along (unless he teleported)). Diego, however, ended the last chapter ABOUT to be eaten. I know you LOVE Deus Ex Machinas, so there might be a chance (unless you confirm that he's dead) he could be alive.<br>Because, honestly, I got NO clue.

A: Well, as we discussed on private messages in response to this, I don't actually love Dei ex Machinae; I hate them. I do love surprises and twists, however, but I'm always careful to foreshadow them and mention the things involved in them beforehand so a particularly clever and observant reader could theoretically predict them all, and come up with all of Boreas' plans before he does. Like in this case, the shields were mentioned several times over part 10 and 11 and even used as a weapon once, I think, and I drew attention to Ghetsis' pillows a few times in chapter 76.

Vulpix411: Q: I read all of this in one day and you know what I think? *walks to a cabinet and pulls out a shotgun* I am going to kill you if this is the end of Boreas. So if this is the end is there any last words that you are going to put in or should I just pull the trigger?

P.S. If you don't kill Boreas, I might have to ask for forgiveness.

A: It's quite impressive you read this all in a single day, as it's around 400 pages, I think. Glad to hear you were so invested in it you read it that quickly, and I'm also glad you're not going to kill me.

Everyone else who has said kind things: Q: Miscellaneous praising comments.

A: Thank you all for your kind words. Even if I didn't respond to everything, I certainly read every comment multiple times and am always very glad to get them. You made writing this much more fun.


	78. Selene, Lucius, Toxica, Octa,Aqua,Boreas

Chapter Seventy-Eight: Selene, Lucius, Toxica, Octa, Aqua, and Boreas

A gentle spring breeze whispered through the tall grass of Route 7 and the Sun shone down warmly on a generously decked table full of delicacies. At the table sat six pokémon, close friends of each other. The meal they were sharing was a very special one; not just because it celebrated the end of the Plasma war, but because it was the final one they'd share. Tomorrow an end would come to their team after three years of hardships and joy, fights and friendship. Each one of them had saved the life of each of the others at least a dozen times, and felt like killing that person at least as often.

As Boreas looked around at his friends, he realised the good times easily outweighed the bad ones. He had a special bond with each of these five pokémon, and to think they would part tomorrow felt unreal. It was sad to part, yet they were all happy with where they were going next.

Boreas smiled and lifted his glass. "To our new League Champion, and to the newest members of his team."

Five glasses tipped against his and they all took a sip. "Hear, hear," said Selene, "but Iwho is this new Champion? I didn't hear anything about a new Champion."

"He's talking about Cheren, birdbrain," said Lucius. "And he's gonna be the new Champion, 'cause we're gonna make him Champion."

"Oh, right," said Selene.

"It's stupid we have to go through Victory Road _again_, though," grumbled Lucius, "we did that twice last year, why do we have to go again?"

"Well, those _are_ the rules," said Octa. "One isn't allowed to challenge the League unless one arrived there by Victory Road."

"Yeah, yeah."

"On the positive side," said Selene, "we've been getting really familiar with Victory Road this way; I can't wait to meet some of my favourite rocks again!"

"Guess at least one of us'll be having fun."

"It's not as if it'll be as bad as the last two times for you either," Boreas pointed out, "since it'll be spring this time, instead of autumn or winter. I hear the Black Mountains' climate is relatively temperate in spring."

"Yeah," Aqua chimed in, "average temperatures only fifty degrees below freezing instead of a hundred. Positively tropical. If you're a Glaceon, at least."

Boreas laughed. "It's not _that_ cold on Victory Road, you know."

"It sure felt like it," said Aqua. "And I should know about cold; I'm married to a Glaceon after all."

"Don't be so silly," chuckled Boreas, "it's not as if I ever expose you to cold, knowing how sensitive you are to it."

"I am not!" said Aqua in an overdone way. "Just because I don't have some kind of Glaceon-superfur that keeps all the cold out..."

"Sure you are," said Boreas, cooling a paw down to below freezing and poking her stomach with it, eliciting a loud squeal. "See?"

Aqua laughed nervously as she recoiled. "That's not fair, I'll get you for that!" She lunged at him and tried to tickle him, but was interrupted by Octa scraping his throat loudly.

"I do apologise if my having dinner interrupts your canoodling."

Boreas and Aqua broke it off and blushed sheepishly. "Sorry," said Boreas, "got a little distracted."

"Oh no, please don't let me interrupt you," spoke Octa snidely, "continue acting like animals all you like."

Toxica giggled. "You're not jealous of them, are you?"

"Of course he is," Lucius joined in with a grin, "after all, it's his anniversary."

"Oh yeah," laughed Toxica, "it's the third anniversary of you and Boreas' first meeting, darling. Hope you didn't forget to get a present for him."

Boreas and Aqua laughed along with them. "Yeah, Octa," teased Boreas, "I hope you didn't forget or thought just this dinner would be enough."

Octa struggled hard to keep a straight face and couldn't quite manage it. "Oh, do be quiet, you dreadful barbarians. I long for the day I shall be in civilised company again. Which just so happens to be tomorrow."

"Don't count your blessings yet." Toxica nudged Octa. "I'll be back in a week or two, and you haven't managed to civilise me yet."

Octa laughed heartily. "Ah, the horrors I exposed myself to when I consented to be given to a trainer. How shall I ever escape the barbarity I was immersed in?"

"I don't know," chuckled Toxica, sipping her glass, "but marrying a barbarian was probably not the best way to go about it."

Octa looked pensive. "Hmm, that might have been my mistake, yes..."

Octa and Toxica had wed on a beautiful day in October, soon after Castelia had been liberated. Team Plasma's hold on the capital had been strong, as all its factions agreed Castelia had to stay in their hands at all costs, actually working together for a change. When Boreas, Aqua, and Octa had joined Toxica, Lucius, and Selene there to help defeat Team Plasma the day after the victory in Nuvema Town, another four difficult months had started. Even as other cities threw off Team Plasma's yoke, their grip on Castelia remained tight, realising holding the capital was their final chance to win the war.

By the time the resistance had finally prevailed, Boreas was exhausted and tired of fighting and wanted nothing more than some peaceful rest. So when Octa had asked Boreas to be his best man, Boreas had expected his friends' wedding to be a welcome repose after the hard work. Little had he known that fighting Team Plasma was easy compared to fighting Octa's family. The entire thing was meticulously planned out, and absolutely everyone, living or dead, had gotten involved in some way. Boreas and Selene, as best man and maid of honour, had automatically been forced to join in on this circus of planning, to the great amusement of Aqua and Lucius who instead used the time to relax.

Still, the wedding itself had been utterly wonderful and made it all worth it, though Boreas had often felt like killing Octa and/or his entire family in the weeks leading up to it. Octa had surprised Boreas with how passionate he had kissed Toxica when Livia had proclaimed them husband and wife; Boreas just didn't know him to get that emotional.

After the wedding, it had been time to fight Team Plasma again, as usual, but without Castelia, its remnants had been chanceless. They had lost city after city, until by the end of the year only Lacunosa and Striaton were left, and a few days later Striaton was Team Plasma's final stronghold. The final splinter of Team Plasma in this city had proven surprisingly hard to vanquish, but on 26 February a free Unova could finally celebrate the end of the war. It had been quite a small war in terms of life lost and destruction wrought, yet its impact was enormous. There were far fewer trainers now, but there was something different about them too other than their dwindled numbers that Boreas couldn't put a finger on until Aqua pointed it out to him.

In a sense, N's dream had come true as the remaining trainers looked on their pokémon differently. It made sense, in a way: with the threat of death from Team Plasma and Zekrom's influence on the minds of all, most trainers had released their pokémon. The only ones that didn't were those who cared about their pokémon a great deal and were willing to fight for them and to risk all; and Team Plasma members. Since the second group was mostly behind bars these days, the remaining trainers were exactly those who treated their pokémon very well and realised they were more than just weapons or tools. To add to that, these had all gone through very difficult times with their pokémon and fought hard for them, which only increased their bond. Of course, with Team Plasma gone, the number of trainers was once again slowly increasing. Boreas hoped the example the current trainers set would be enough to avoid a return to the more mixed bag of trainers there used to be.

Boreas was snapped out of his thoughts by Lucius talking to him. "You know, pup, you're pretty good in a fight. Why don't you reconsider leaving and join us on Cheren's team instead? I'm sure he'll gladly replace some of the other losers there with you."

Boreas had actually considered that briefly, but it didn't really appeal to him. While he had gotten along decently with Cheren while they were in Castelia and it had been nice to have a trainer in charge of the team again, Cheren wasn't Black. He didn't like him _that_ much. But more importantly, he felt it was time to move on. He had become quite restless lately, and looked forward a lot to seeing more of the world. "No thanks, Lucius. Been there, done that."

"Sure, but that's no reason not to do it again; it's a challenge after all. Plus, this time, when Cheren is Champion, he'll actually get to keep the title instead of, y'know, dying a few hours later. So we'll have to defend the title against challengers."

"Yes, sounds terribly exciting," scoffed Boreas, "waiting around in a single place for challengers to come to us and probably beat them easily. And it gets even better, because for half the year they won't come at all since Victory Road is too dangerous in winter. Sounds great."

"There's more to it than that! Champions get to fight in the world championship, and they have all kinds of other duties and tasks."

Toxica giggled. "You're not saying you'll miss Boreas, right?"

Lucius sniffed. "Miss him? Me? I just think he would make a good asset to Cheren's team. The same goes for the rest of you, by the way; I'm sure Cheren could be convinced to have you on his team."

"No, thanks," said Octa. "While it is an intriguing possibility, I wish to be with my family for now. I promised to, after all."

"You've seen what this place is like, Lucius," said Toxica. "They really need me. Besides, I'd rather not have my honeymoon on Victory Road like Boreas and Aqua. I'll be happy just to settle down with Octa."

It was quiet for a moment as Aqua slowly realised Lucius looked at her. "What, me?" she blurted out in surprise. "You want _me_ to join Cheren's team?"

"W-well, not you in particular..." grumbled Lucius.

Aqua raised an eyebrow. "Me in general? Just any of all those Aquas I represent?"

"No, what I meant was... Just, anyone in the team, including you. Because you're all good fighters. And you're pretty okay, I guess."

Aqua smiled, genuinely surprised. "Was that a _compliment_ I heard? What have you done with the real Lucius?" She chuckled as Lucius struggled for words. "Thanks. But no, I have no interest in the Pokémon League."

"Don't worry," said Selene, "you'll still have me."

"Yeah, that's exactly what I'm afraid of."

A content silence fell about the table. They had all finished eating a while ago, but none of them saw any reason to get up already, enjoying the evening and each others' company.

"Aqua, Boreas," asked Toxica, "do you know where you'll go yet?"

Boreas looked at Aqua. She shrugged. "Not a clue," grinned Boreas. "Isn't that wonderful?"

"Well, if you say so," said Octa. "It sounds quite dreadful to me."

Boreas chuckled. "Where's your sense of adventure, Octa?"

"I don't know, my dear fellow, but it's quite satisfied after all the adventure we've been through."

Boreas shrugged. "Not mine. We haven't been to a new place in over a year, just revisiting cities we've been through to get rid of Team Plasma. I'm just about dying to see new places."

"I don't think I shall ever understand you, my dear fellow. But it does not matter, whether I understand you or not, I have never had such a good friend before. I shall miss you, my dear fellow. All of you, for that matter." He scraped his throat and lifted his glass. "Here's to friendship. May ours last a lifetime." Six glasses met.

–

The early morning Sun shone upon the roofs of Crimson Village, demonstrating the source of the village's name. Six pokémon walked slowly through the nearly empty streets. Even knowing someone was waiting for them, they were in no hurry, as they were about to part.

Boreas walked in silence, even though part of him wanted to use these final minutes to talk as much as he could to Lucius and Selene. But it was as if he had said everything he needed to say. He just wished they could all stay together... But it was alright this way. They had spent three great years with each other, and now it was time to move on, as they each wanted to do different things. Soon there would be only memories left of their team, and it would be enough.

As they reached the village's small train station, they saw Cheren and his four remaining pokémon waiting for them. Far away, a train's sound could be heard. "Ah, there you are," said Cheren, "just in time. Are you ready to go?"

Lucius turned around to look at his friends, and Boreas' heart suddenly ached with the knowledge that this really was the end. "C'mon, birdbrain, get on my shoulder. It's time to go."

Selene hopped down from Aqua's shoulder and embraced her with her wings. While they said goodbye, Boreas felt he had to say something to Lucius. "Well, I guess this is goodbye."

"Yeah," said Lucius. "I guess so. Or it could be your last chance to change your mind."

Boreas shook his head.

Lucius shrugged. "Figured as much. It's a shame, it'd have been a blast."

"Yeah," said Boreas, "I guess it would." He was surprised to find tears stinging behind his eyes. He had barely realised how attached he had become to Lucius. He was an annoying jerk and never missed a chance to make a sour remark, but Boreas would truly miss those remarks and how they occasionally made him laugh. He was about to say something when Selene's claws gripped his shoulder and Lucius went to say goodbye to Octa.

"No more playing on Ferris wheels, alright?" said Selene. "It's all fun and games until you end up hanging from one by your tail without Selene there to help you."

"Alright, I'll be careful." Boreas grinned, petting Selene's feathers. "Thanks for making my world a little stranger every day."

Selene gave him an undignified look.

"Alright," he laughed, "a lot stranger."

"That's better," she grinned.

"Never stop doing the same to Lucius, okay? It really annoys him, in a good way."

Selene looked ignorant. "I don't know what you mean."

"Sure, sure," said Boreas.

"But," Selene continued with a mischievous twinkle in her eyes, "if I ever figure it out, I'll follow your advice."

Boreas grinned. "Good."

Selene hopped onto Lucius' shoulder. "I'm all ready to go!"

"Then what are we waiting for?" chuckled Lucius. He turned to Boreas one last time and gave one of his rare smiles. "Have fun out there, pup."

"Good luck to both of you." They stood in front of each other for a moment, and then Lucius and Boreas moved forward and hugged each other briefly. Selene, sitting on Lucius' shoulder, gave Boreas' ear a friendly nibble. They released each other, and Lucius nodded to all of them. "See you around, guys."

He turned and walked to Cheren, who was quite impatiently waiting at the train by now. Selene waved at them with her wing as they boarded the train.

–

Four pokémon sat at the station, talking merrily. They had to wait an hour for the train to Driftveil, but they didn't mind, as it allowed them some more time together. When the train came, Octa would take Boreas and Aqua to Driftveil, while Toxica would stay behind to take the next train to Opelucid; she was going to travel Route 10 too, as far as the gates of Victory Road to spend some more time with her friend Selene. But since Cheren wouldn't leave Opelucid rightaway, she had chosen to spend a final hour with Aqua and Boreas as well. They were reminiscing together, and Toxica just finished an embarrassing story about Boreas.

"So," said Aqua slyly, "you were jealous of Toxica, hmm? Funny how you forgot to mention that to me when you told me all about your past..."

Boreas blushed. "Well, I did tell you she annoyed me. I just didn't go into endless details about the reasons..."

"I wonder what else he didn't tell you," giggled Toxica. "Did he say anything about Febby?"

"Not at first, no. He told me about her later, though."

"What about the time he got drunk and kissed me?"

"What?"

"I never-"

"I beg your pardon?"

Toxica burst out in laughter. "Just kidding, just kidding. You should've seen all your faces!"

Boreas had to laugh too now. "Poor Octa, getting stuck with you forever."

Toxica stuck out her tongue. "Poor Aqua, getting stuck with _you_ forever."

"I'm not sure which of us is to be pitied more..." said Octa.

"Well," said Toxica, "you would never have been stuck with me if it wasn't for Boreas."

"I was barely involved," said Boreas. "I just gave Octa a little push in the right direction."

"As well as a few punches in the right direction..." grumbled Octa.

"Well," giggled Boreas, "you needed them, so I gave them. Not just because I'm your friend, but also because I had promised Capella. Well, I didn't promise to punch you, that was my own input."

"I wonder," said Toxica, "what Capella would think of us if she was here now."

Boreas thought of his old friend and her kind smile and eyes that told you you could trust her with anything. Always kind and altruistic, and she had always been there when you needed her. "She'd be happy for us, I think. She'd be delighted you and Octa got together, and that we finally beat Team Plasma. And of course that we're all still alive against all odds."

A glad silence fell. "I wonder with whom she'd have gone..." said Octa.

"Maybe she'd have gone off on her own?" wondered Toxica. "Back to her old home in the river in Nacrene, perhaps."

The train could be heard approaching in the distance. Boreas felt a stab of emotion, knowing it was time to say goodbye to Toxica. "Remember when we first met?" said Boreas.

"How could I forget?" said Toxica with a smile. "You wanted to get rid of me as soon as possible, if I remember correctly. Looks like you got your wish at last."

Boreas smiled too, though tears stung sharply. "Yeah. Took me almost three years, but I finally did it."

"You did," she said, her voice breaking, "you must be very h-happy."

Feeling his own tears break through as well, Boreas hugged Toxica tightly. "O-only happy we became such good friends. You're like a sister to me, Toxica: we're very different and argue and annoy each other a lot, but it doesn't change anything about how much I like you."

"Th-thanks, brother," grinned Toxica, letting him go and drying her tears. "I hope you'll have an awesome time, wherever you're going."

As the train reached the station, Toxica said another heartfelt goodbye to Aqua. Boreas found himself crying again as he boarded the train. It was bizarre how attached he'd become to the bratty little Oddish. Boarding the train too, Octa kissed her. "I'll see you in a few weeks, darling."

Toxica nodded and waved her goodbye to them as the doors closed. Boreas and Aqua sprinted to a coupé and looked out of the window to see Toxica running along with the train, waving at them. They waved back until she finally began falling behind and disappeared from their view.

–

Three pokémon sat in the train and watched landscapes scroll by rapidly as they chatted about everything and nothing. Boreas knew the hardest goodbye of them all was yet to come, but didn't let it bother him. It was barely imaginable, really, that he would soon leave Octa. Rather, he used their final hours together to their fullest. They laughed and talked and talked. Aqua mostly stayed outside of the conversation, understanding their need to spend some final time together.

They talked much about Black and laughed at the memories of how bad he had been at understanding them at first. The number of times he'd managed to correctly interpret his pokémon before Victory Road could be counted on one paw. Yet they also remembered how much he had cared for them and how brave he had been. It was easy to underestimate Black as a teammember, but he had been at least as important as any of the pokémon. When Boreas' life had fallen apart in Chargestone Cave, coincidentally underneath the hills they were passing over, Black had been all he had left.

From Black the conversation turned to other things, from the adventures they'd had together to astrophysics. They discussed Cheren's odds of becoming the new Champion, things Octa and Livia were hoping to change, and much more. Boreas realised most of his happiest moments with Octa had been spent like this, talking about all kinds of things and enjoying his friend's enormous knowledge and wit. Those that weren't spent making up after bickering like an old couple, at least.

Slowly, yet way too fast for Boreas' tastes, the train came to Driftveil. It pulled into the city's old station, and together they got off, heading through the familiar city to the docks.

–

"Was it difficult to convince them to give you a boat as a token of gratitude?"

Boreas sighed. "'Difficult' doesn't even begin to describe it. It was difficult to make it clear I wanted a boat, and I hadn't even got to the convincing part yet. You know how hard it is to make humans understand you."

Octa nodded. "It is. So how did you do it?"

Boreas shrugged. "Well, I decided to convince Alder, since he knows well what happened in Plasma's Castle, and can actually understand pokémon. Well, he understood me after a few tries, at least. Then he took some more convincing, but finally he talked to other people, and eventually I got my boat. I guess some people along the line must've looked at him really weird when he told them he wanted to give a boat to some pokémon."

"And that instructor looked at him really weird too when he was teaching us to use the thing," recalled Aqua. "Pretty sure she thought it was a joke."

"It's not that surprising," said Octa. "It's one of your sillier ideas, my dear fellow. Were you perchance unaware of the existence of ferries and planes? 'Tis not uncommon to have pokémon travel onboard those, you know; you don't need your own boat to travel."

"True," said Boreas, "but it's a lot more fun when we can pick where we go ourselves. And we can get to places ferries don't go."

"Like where?"

Boreas shrugged. "I'll know when I get there. There's that lost continent inhabited entirely by pokémon, for example..."

"That's just a myth, my dear fellow."

"Probably."

They had reached the water now at a familiar-looking small pier on the river. Boreas was flooded by memories and blushed a little. "Look, my love, that's where we first kissed..." He pointed to the water next to the pier.

"I remember," giggled Aqua, "I was expecting you to kiss me at some point all day, and had been looking forward to it quite a bit."

"Well, I was really nervous... You had me completely enchanted by then, and I was terrified of messing it up. You might've given me more signs you wanted me to kiss you."

Aqua burst out into laughter. "Because I really was incredibly subtle about fancying you, you're right."

"Alright," laughed Boreas, "I guess you gave me a fair few signs."

"Fair few? I practically had giant red neon letters "I FANCY YOU" around my head. I'm almost embarrassed thinking back to it and how strongly I was coming on to you. The long loneliness got me a little funny in the head, I think."

"Well, to be fair you've stayed a little funny in the head ever since I've known you."

As they walked by the river's shore, they saw a small blue ship lying ahead. It had a single mast and two sails, which were currently under wraps, as well as an engine. It was small enough to controlled by two, yet large enough to comfortably house those two for long periods of time in its cabin.

"You both are," said Octa kindly, "which is why I believe you'll be together for as long as you live."

"Octa," said Boreas, "what got you feeling so prophetic all of a sudden?"

"The fact that it's become time to say farewell to my best friend."

"Well, it's-"

Octa continued. "My dear Boreas; Aqua. You shall only have each other to rely on for now, therefore heed well my words. Be patient with each other. Always let there be love, not anger between you. Let the other be your all and take care of them before yourself, and you should be alright. When you fight anyway, never give up, but stay at work to repair your relationship. Never forget the love you carry for them.

My dear fellow, you have one of the finest minds I have ever had the pleasure of encountering, and as long as you use it, you can get out of any problem. Aqua, it has admittedly been a mixed bag, knowing you. I used to suspect you of treason, to think you were a bad influence on Boreas, an annoyance, and a bad person. However, I have since discovered I was mistaken."

Aqua smiled. "Thank you."

"You are, in fact, a good person and a great influence on Boreas. Moreover, I have eventually come to think of you as a friend. Will you accept my apologies for my behaviour in earlier days?"

Aqua embraced Octa. "Of course. I had almost forgotten it by now."

"Thank you. Then I shall simply wish you nothing but happiness eternal."

Aqua nodded and let go of him. "Thanks. Take good care of Toxica, alright? She'll enjoy being with your family for a while, but eventually she'll want to leave."

Octa nodded. "I know. So, admittedly, shall I. We do not intend to help Lady Livia forever, nor shall she need our help forever."

Octa and Aqua nodded to each other as a final greeting, then Octa turned to Boreas. Aqua left, saying: "Take all the time you need; I'll get the ship ready."

Octa and Boreas were left looking at each other. Bores suddenly realised this really was the last time he would see Octa in a long time and he couldn't stop the tears. There was no-one in the world he knew as well or as long as Octa, not even Aqua. He could barely remember not knowing him. "O-Octa..." he said. "I-I think maybe I don't want-"

Octa grasped him and resolutely cut him off. "No, you do. I have seen you look forward to this for more than a year, my dear fellow. Do not let the difficulty of parting stop you from doing the right thing. You didn't let it stop you in Team Plasma's castle, and you shouldn't let it today. The world awaits you and your bride, my dear, dear Boreas, and I know you shall have an utterly wonderful time there, even without me. All good things come to an end, my dear fellow, even this friendship."

Boreas nodded; he knew Octa was right. "You're right, Octa. As always."

Octa smiled even as tears rolled over his cheeks too. "And don't you forget it. My dear fellow, what more can one say on an occasion such as this? 'Tis very sad to lose you, yet I'm glad you'll finally get to do what you truly like to do. I hope you shall see things beyond your wildest dreams, which I know are pretty wild."

"T-thank you. I hope you'll cherish the time you spend with your family... And then live happily ever after with Toxica. You've deserved it after all you did for me."

Octa gave an uncharacteristic sign of modesty as he tried to brush off the compliment.

"No, really," insisted Boreas. "I won't even get into the life-saving; you've basically educated me all by yourself, and you've always been there for me. I know you'll get the happiness you deserve. You and Toxica will be happy together for a long, long time, and you'll have lots of cute little... sprouts together. Parts of your family will object, of course, but in the end it'll just help them see it's a new time now."

"Thank you, my dear fellow. I hope you're right. I would say something similar to you... But I know what you and Aqua think of children, therefore I know you shall be happy with just the two of you instead. With that... I-I believe 'tis time to say farewell."

"Y-you're wrong, my friend. It's time to say goodbye."

Octa's face cheered up greatly. "It is?"

Boreas laughed and hugged Octa tightly, holding on to him. "Of course it is. You didn't think I would leave a friend as dear to me as you behind forever, did you? We'll meet again."

"You're right, my dear, dear fellow," said Octa softly as they embraced, "we will meet again, though I do not yet know where or when. Be warned, though, that I shall want to hear your every adventure to its tiniest detail that day."

"Of course. And the same warning goes to you." He let go of Octa and looked him straight into the eyes. "Goodbye, Octa. I've never had a friend better than you."

"Until we meet again, my dear fellow. May your heart be full of joy and your eyes full of wonder."

They nodded to each other a final time before Boreas slowly turned around and jumped into the boat. Aqua embraced him softly, seeing his eyes were wet with tears, and he got behind the mainsail she had unfurled. They sailed south, to the river's mouth and the sea. After a while Boreas looked back and saw the distant figure of Octa smile his goodbye. He smiled back as the Serperior disappeared behind a bend in the river.

Boreas looked at Aqua. Octa was right; now that the goodbyes were over with he realised this was going to be great fun. "Now," he said with a happy smile, "let's see if we will find something wonderful... Or if something wonderful will find us."

The End.

–

AUTHOR'S NOTES: Two years ago, I had an idea for a way to style a pokémon Nuzlocke Challenge comic I was considering making. The idea came from playing a lot of Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood and was essentially that the protagonist was the pokémon world equivalent of an Assassin, fighting against the tyrants of Johto. These would have been the Gym Leaders, cruel governors from a tyrannical emperor; Lance. Pretty soon into thinking of this, I realised it would work much better as a fanfic, and began to toy with the idea.

I soon decided the main character's main pokémon would be a Glaceon named Boreas; I liked the name and it seemed approppriate for a Glaceon. I decided the main character and Boreas would embark on their journey of revenge against Lance's empire because both their families were killed by his governor, Falkner. I had much more planned out, but the details are unimportant. It would have followed the plot of HeartGold and SoulSilver for the most part, but cast in a much darker light.

With my idea there, I started writing. But where to begin? How to begin? I struggled with finding a good beginning for it, despite several attempts. Slowly during this period, the idea of making the main character the Glaceon instead of his trainer dawned on me. It occurred to me it was very odd that we are all into a fandom revolving around fascinating creatures, yet for the most part have boring old humans as the main characters (this doesn't just go for fanfics, but even moreso for official pokémon media including the games), having the pokémon themselves far too often as nothing but characterless weapons of the real main characters. Besides, I thought, it would be fun to see humanity from the outside, through a pokémon's eyes.

So Boreas became the main character. This still left the problem of how to start. I tried many starts, but it didn't hit me until I saw a very cute picture of a Vaporeon on deviantart. ( pequedark-velvet dot deviantart dot com/art/VAPOREON-59144071 ) The drawing had a lot of character, and in fact as I saw it a character popped into my head. I certainly wouldn't claim Aqua came into my mind fully-formed, because there was a lot about her I didn't think of until much later, but the overt part of her, her cheerful, flirty, somewhat odd demeanor, came to me right away. She made a lot of sense as a love interest for Boreas, and almost immediately I pictured a funny scene where she was sunning on a rock, as she was in that picture, in the sea between Olivine and Cianwood, and Boreas saw her while on a boat and instantly jumped out to go talk to her. Just one problem with that idea: it wouldn't come to pass for a very long time, if I ever got that far into the fic.

But that's when another idea struck me: what if I started the story right there? Just in the middle; the early parts could be filled in through flashback later, but at least I had a beginning this way. It might make it look like the story would be a romance, but that was too bad; I believed I had found a good beginning, and I would go with that and began writing. "_Boreas yawned as he stared off at the passing waves, bored out of his skull..."_

But by now, I was beginning to come off the idea of the HG/SS/Assassin's Creed inspired story as I hadn't played either of those games for a week or so (I can be just as fickle as Boreas). Rather, I had been playing Pokémon Black. And I had been imagining a bit of a story with it, imagined my character's responses to people and personalities to my pokémon and such. One character that originated from this was Octavianus, my starting Snivy, who I imagined... Well, as Octa. Smart, funny, and extremely smug. Another thing I took from this was a far greater interest in doing the story in Unova instead of Johto. So I tried to take the same basic idea, but transposed to Unova... And quickly found there was no need for it. Unlike HG/SS, B/W already _has_ a good story, which could become much better with some tweaking. There was no need to make a new story if I could give my take on the story already there. Not the most original approach perhaps, but it sounded like fun, so I threw the entire fic's course around.

However, Boreas and Aqua and Octa were still definitely in; and in fact I had already written much of the first chapter with Boreas and Aqua and had no intention to throw it away as it was a good beginning. In fact, the whole Team Plasma storyline got me to think it would be interesting to have a protagonist who was on their side, and Aqua seemed a perfect fit, as a wild pokémon. So I made the first chapter include the beginnings of that dynamic.

I was nearly done with the chapter when I realised a problem: there was no sea in Unova. There were rivers, but you never really went there in the story... Well, that just meant I had to change the story a bit. So the encounter between Boreas and Aqua now took place in a river near Driftveil.

I was glad to see people liked the first chapter when I posted it, and started work on the second. But not only did I run into the problem of beginning again, as this was meant to start off a flashback, but the chronological origin of Boreas I had worked out was now no longer working, since there was no more evil governor Falkner to kill his family. I just began writing chapter two, and some random Zangeese ended up eating Boreas' family. Not my strongest hour, I admit.

However, it did allow me to introduce Octa, and develop Boreas better, who I had not really thought of a personality for yet. Between chapters 2 and 3, I went on a journey to France to conduct research on organisms on its rocky coasts (tip: studying biology rocks). This journey gave me time to think about how to go on with the story and the characters from here. (I think the jump in quality at chapter 3 is quite obvious) I also read Foundation's Edge by Isaac Asimov here, and not only did the main characters have a friendship that for a certain part inspired the peculiar friendship between Boreas and Octa, but one of them, Janov Pelorat, had a peculiar way of speaking that inspired Octa's. The 'my dear fellow' is a direct reference to Pelorat.

With chapter 4, it was time to introduce the main plot with Ghetsis, N, Team Plasma, Cheren, and Bianca. And Diego, of course, but he wouldn't become important until later. I used a lot of dialogue straight from the game, a practise I would later quit since the lines from the game really didn't flow well when in story format instead of being displayed on a little screen one by one.

Chapters five and six are very notable for how close they stick to the game and the game's plot; in the beginning I stayed very close to it, and then began to drift further and further away from it into my own plot. Therefore chapter five has the distinction of containing the only battle against one of the rivals (Bianca) and the only battle against a totally random opponent, while chapter six follows the first encounter of Plasma as villains in the game incredibly closely.

Boreas stayed in the background quite a bit for these chapters, being a completely inexperienced little Eevee cub with little to no fighting skills he let Octa do most of the work. However, I already knew Boreas was very clever and was considering ways to show this trait off. So then I realised he could use his mind to fight rather than his skills; that would make for much more interesting battles too. So I tested this out in chapter 7 by having him use macaroni, a bowl of soup, and a table cloth as weapons; and totally loved the result. Since readers seemed to love it too, Boreas' fighting style was set.

Writing just Boreas and Octa for a while had been fun, but I felt it was time for new characters to be added. It was time to step up the threat of Team Plasma as villains. I had already decided the Sages would play a much larger role in my story, as they would allow me to just make the grunts the idiotic pushovers they are in the game instead of struggling to make them threatening. So I thought of a fun expansion on the stuff with the Team Plasma grunts stealing pokémon on Route 3, which turned out to be my first somewhat major deviation from the game. Nowadays, I would probably have done the entire thing as I had it in two chapters, but I split it in five. Why? Well, in these days I considered this story just a silly little thing to have some fun with and not spend much effort on. I was as good as sure I would never finish it, and I intended each chapter to be a brief, fun writing exercise. I easily wrote two chapters a week because I didn't consider either quality or length very important. I even considered not proofreading when I finished a chapter, but I know how awful my writing is before proofreading at all, but figured that would be _too_ lazy. Doing my entire plan for the daycare storyline as a single chapter, or two, would definitely have been way too long under that policy, so I made a separate chapter for just about every event. However, to maintain a form of connection between these five chapters within the larger story, I called them "Dire Difficulties at the Daycare, parts One to Five" (I adore alliteration, in case you hadn't noticed). These were chapters 8 to 12.

Lucius and Toxica both had a certain simple concept when I introduced them, and for the first half of the fic, they sadly never developed beyond those simple, one-dimensional concepts as I focussed on Boreas, Aqua, Octa, and Capella. I consider this one of my story's big mistakes and even felt that way while writing these early parts, but didn't take serious measures to increase their screentime and characterisation until much later. I also think Toxica's introduction in chapter 12 is very poorly done.

Anyway, on to something I do like from this five-chapter mini-arc: the first battle against one of the Sages. I found these chaotic, full-party battles against impossible odds great fun to write (as you might have noticed by how many of them there end up being near the end), and I think it was a good idea to have the sages actually do stuff and be very powerful. With Rood I had the particular fun of making fun of a fellow Dutchman. (Every sage except Ghetsis is named after a colour in a certain language, and I had them originate from those countries. Since Rood (pronounced 'road') is Dutch for red, I made him Dutch)

Another thing that happened in this part is that Octa and Boreas ended up fighting for the first time and making up. I should note that was really the event that solidified their friendship and thereby more important than it may appear at first.

Chapter 13 is my least favourite chapter of the entire story. It's built entirely around an attempt to set up Grimsley (every Elite Four except Caitlin is set up by an earlier chapter, of course. Why not Caitlin? Because these chapters tend to be pretty filler-y and I didn't have room for her; as well as to troll people who went to look for her in earlier chapters), but does so pretty clumsily and mainly ends up being pointless filler. Even the battle with N is very filler-y and mostly follows the game's dialogue; it's a big shame Octa evolving to a Servine and Boreas unmasking Diego as a Zorua come in such a lame chapter. Not one of my proudest moments.

With chapter fifteen, we met Capella. At this point, while I hadn't truly planned things out, I had more and more of an idea of what would happen in the (distant) future. Including that Capella would die, and that people would need to be attached to her for it to mean anything. Like Lucius and Toxica, I took a while to settle on a good characterisation for her, but I hit it after a few chapters instead of a few dozen, and she became one of my favourite characters, as well as that of many readers. Since the pokémon on Black's team are for the most part quite quibbly and sarcastic, it's nice to have one of them just be a sweet, patient angel like Capella.

Another thing that came with chapter fifteen was that I had stopped following my old creed of keeping the chapters short and spending little effort on them. The chapters were growing and I was planning things out more. And one thing I was beginning to realise was that the current fifteen chapters were becoming a bit of an unwieldy mess, both to navigate and from a story perspective. And that would only get worse with more chapters added to it. I liked the mini-arc feel of chapters 8 to 12, of how they were connected by something larger than a chapter, but shorter than the entire story, and so I decided to divide the entire story in parts. But how best to divide them? Well, as luck had turned it out, Black had defeated his first Gym Leader in chapter 7 and his second in 14. looking at what I was planning for the next few chapters, I realised they would fight Burgh in either chapter 20 or 21. Looking further forward, I realised that a Gym Leader battle every seven chapters would be quite possible, and would place the entire story at 77 chapters, with part nine being Victory Road, part ten the Pokémon League, and part eleven Team Plasma's castle. Such lovely symmetry seemed a great way to divide the story into larger, more manageable chunks, and so I created the parts, retroactively making the first seven chapters part one, the next seven part two, and chapter fifteen the first chapter of part three. Since the mini-arc of chapters 8-12 was no longer needed, I renamed all of those chapters to give them individual titles. From part four onward, the parts would play a big role in how I planned out the story, which meant each of them had their own identity and the chapters were thought out to make the part work as a whole. Not part three yet, though, since I began it before I thought of chopping the story in larger parts.

So far, Boreas and his friends had won every important fight they'd been in, and the pokémon were always doing all the work, while Black had much less time to shine. So I thought it would be interesting to see them lose against a Sage and explore the consequences of that, and then having Black rescue his pokémon and be the hero for once. Originally, there would have been a chapter entirely from Black's perspective, but I found it impossible to write. I realised the fact that we see things entirely from pokémon eyes was one of the strengths of this story, and didn't find changing to a human worked well at all. The removed chapter ended up meaning I could spend chapter 20 in the present instead, following Boreas and Aqua, who I had spent far too little time with lately.

Being captured by Team Plasma also allowed me to finally give Boreas closure for his family's death. I had always known this would involve him making friends with a Zangoose, though I didn't know the exact way until I begun writing chapter 18 (I was considering having a Zangoose in the sixth position on the team, which was later filled by Selene). I also hit on the idea of introducing an earlier love interest for Boreas here, as I thought this would be much more interesting than having Aqua be his first love. This is where the flashback format really pays off, because I think that if I had written it chronologically and followed the same storyline, everyone would have seen Febby as Boreas' True Love and considered Aqua an annoying distraction when she dropped in around chapter 30 (especially since their romance would just completely cover about five chapters in a row that way). I never decided to bring Febby and Boreas together, though; I think it would've made the story too romance-heavy (and it already has quite a lot of that stuff).

Boreas' evolution comes straight from my original Assassin's Creed-based idea. I had no intention of having him as an Eevee until Twist Mountain, and I didn't want him evolving without reason either, so I thought up the idea of a chip of Sinnoh's Ice Rock coincidentally evolving him. I can't remember how the trainer was supposed to get his hands on it in the original idea, but Boreas would also have evolved during the battle with the third Gym Leader (well, governor) after his bag was cut open and the stone fell out. It made sense to have Bronius, as a rock-type master, be interested in the piece of stone, which made it a good way to get it into Black's hands. Strangely, I was very used to having Boreas as an Eevee at this point and felt quite weird to have him turn into a Glaceon. Nowadays I can barely imagine him as an Eevee any more.

Boreas hadn't been inside a pokéball at all until this point, and I feared chapter 22, as I had carelessly had him say he was in his pokéball while they were on route 4. This meant I would have to figure out what the inside of a pokéball was like at that point. Fortunately, I worked out a non-awful way to portray it, but it hit onto some philosophical issues, which Aqua and Boreas actually discuss in this chapter. This is also the chapter where we finally begin to learn there is more to Aqua than her seemingly happy, flirty mask as we see her lie to Boreas about why she left (though it's portrayed a little clunkily).

As soon as I thought of the parts, I realised there was enough to do in Nimbasa City for its own part, with little travel. It could be a relatively calm part, with no sage battles and stuff; and having them lose against Elesa (easily the second-hardest Unova Gym Leader) seemed an excellent way to keep them hanging around Nimbasa for a while.

By now, I realised a problem with my story: the villains were uninteresting. Yes, the sages were strong and evil and stuff and their battles pretty cool, but they never interacted with the main characters directly (this is why I later made them and all other pokémon masters able to understand pokémon), and they were basically just seven old evil guys. N is a pretty interesting concept, but he too is a human, and he's barely a villain. I knew I needed a pokémon villain, who could be a lot more personal a foe for Boreas than the Sages. Oddly, I had thought of someone like that all the way back in chapter 4: Diego. Originally, he was supposed to become more like a rival to Boreas than a villain, and would have basically been a good person (hence why I named him after Don Diego de la Vega a.k.a. Zorro; which was also a hint to him being a Zorua in reality. I would probably have named him differently if I knew how evil he would become). But in chapter 4, Boreas couldn't even fight yet, so Octa did it instead. And in chapter 13 I somehow forgot my plan for Diego and just had him fight Octa again. However, with the next N battle arriving in chapter 25, I decided it was high time I kicked off the rivalry between Boreas and Diego (now evolved). As I wrote it, the fight turned quite brutal almost automatically and Diego instantly took a dive into the deep end of the alignment pool. I realised the new evil Diego was perfect as a pokémon villain and happily let him evolve into that role. I realised it was important Boreas wouldn't just be able to defeat him, as it would reduce his threat in the future. Plus, having Diego win would allow him to really get nasty and give Boreas a good reason to hate him. Chapter 25 is one of my favourites, and it definitely kicked the fic into a higher gear.

I had struggled for a while on how to fill the team's sixth slot. I had some vague ideas, the biggest of which was a friend for Lucius, who really had a tendency to do nothing in each chapter. Realising anyone who liked Lucius had to be crazy, I decided to go all the way and make the new character a weird oddball who was drifting somewhere between actual madness and pretend-madness. With Murkrow being one of my favourite pokémon, Selene was born. At just the right time to save Boreas from Diego hanging him up by his tail. Selene's name is a reference to Luna Lovegood, who served as partial inspiration for her.

When I divided the story in parts and thus planned it out, I found a place for Boreas and Aqua to finally snog each other: the end of part four. Rather than just having a Gym Leader battle to round off the part, there would finally be some movement on the romance plot. Aqua and Boreas were never supposed to be a will-they-or-won't-they couple, as both made it very obvious they fancied each other and it would just be stupid to pretend they didn't. With chapter 29, I also had some fun with Boreas' reaction to his first kiss, and Octa being annoyed with his behaviour.

The main event of part five was of course ending the flashback, which still required tying up some loose ends. Mainly that Boreas needed to be ready for Aqua, as he acted nowhere near as confident with Febby, hiding his feelings and being nervous instead; and was still into Febby at this point. Enter Esper. Sadly for him, Boreas had to learn the hard way what happens when you don't tell someone you like how you feel about them. It also allowed some touching moments with Capella, who I was really beginning to regret my decision to kill off.

Black being kidnapped was an interesting idea, I think, because it allowed me to show the bond between him and his pokémon without much talk between them (talk between a human and a pokémon is annoyingly awkward to write) while also giving Lucius some time in the spotlight, and being a final adventure for the team before the end of the flashback, which happened in chapter 33. It was an odd moment to tie the entire fic together like that, and another one of these milestones I had never truly expected to reach when I begun writing. (I think chapter 50 was the final one of these milestones... After that point, I pretty much knew I would finish the story)

When I first created her, Aqua was exactly as she seemed. But only a few chapters in, I had realised there was no way she was truly 100% like that. She was coming on to Boreas so strongly, she was so strangely carefree; there was clearly something going on. I can't remember quite when I figured out Aqua's backstory, but it was some time before chapter 15. Chapter 22 already told little bits of it, but as soon as the flashback was over, it was time for her to share her entire dark secret with Boreas. To show the increasing love between them in more interesting ways than with smooching, because it really needed to be revealed, but also to show the happy romantic times for Boreas were reaching an end, and real life went on for him. Interestingly, a few readers also correctly guessed Aqua had a dark secret, but usually the guess was that she was a member of Team Plasma (which she wasn't yet at this point).

With part six, dark times came. It had always been planned as the point where Capella died and Boreas found out Aqua had joined N, but originally I didn't even grasp the connection between these two events. Boreas would have been relatively stoic through them, really. Especially Aqua joining N would have been met with only brief anger before he accepted it. But as I wrote, I got very attached to Capella, and began to realise just how great the impact of her death would be on Boreas. Also, I got a better idea of what Boreas was like as I wrote him and I realised that brief anger before acceptance was really not how he would respond to Aqua joining the enemy. _Especially _so shortly after seeing his second-best friend murdered gruesomely (I think in hindsight Capella's death perhaps skirts the upper edges of a T rating a tiny bit. Maybe I should not have made it quite so gory, though I do think the horribleness of her death helps hammer home the shock). He would be utterly furious and fight Aqua in his rage and thus truly ruin his relationship. Realising this part was really going to ruin Boreas' life, I embraced the chance with open arms. Its sheer bleakness was difficult to write, and it resulted in longer times between chapters, but it worked very well in my mind. I was especially glad to see peoples saddened reactions at Capella's death; the worst thing that could happen when killing her was finding indifference.

Another thing this part resulted in was a big change in my plans for the ending. Originally, part eleven was mainly going to be walking through N's Castle. Then Black would catch Reshiram, he and N would battle, Ghetsis would come in and there would be a final battle with him. Yawn. I knew this was an anticlimax more and more (though it was good in the game), and once Diego had become a major villain in chapter 25, I struggled to find a good way to have him and Boreas have a proper showdown in it. To solve the anticlimax problem, I planned a sequel in which the seven sages would launch a plan B and get foiled by Boreas and his friends again, this time in truly epic fashion. But as I wrote part six, I realised what a crime it would be to let this story down with an anticlimactic ending just to set up a sequel. So I experimented with the idea of moving the N battle to the end of part ten and having part eleven be a huge Lord-of-the-Rings-with-pokémon-style battle. I dismissed it at first, as it was too radical a change, threw away too many cool things I had planned out for the final battle, etc etc. But I warmed up to it quickly and you know how it turned out.

Even after I planned the violent breakup between Boreas and Aqua, I planned for them to be reunited really soon after. My plan was that Aqua actually keeps to the promise she made of meeting him in Mistralton as she feels bad about their falling out, and they end up making up (as well as out) with each other within seconds of seeing each other. No way. So I threw around my plans for part seven a bit to make their reunion hapen later and with more setup: first Boreas had to make up with Octa, and Boreas and Aqua both already needed to partially forgive each other. Only then could they make up, and it wouldn't be with them just jumping each other with kisses as I first thought of; they really needed to talk about that stuff.

I didn't think of doing chapters 45 and 46 without Boreas until I begun writing 45. 45 would've been what became 47 at first, and then Boreas would rejoin his friends and go to Celestial Tower and Octa's family with them in 46 and 47. But as I began, I realised two things: 1: Boreas had been through an awful lot lately and really deserved a break. 2: Toxica was still one-dimensional. I had done a paragraph from Toxica's point of view in chapter 43 to help flesh her out, and decided I liked it, so figured it would be cool to write these two chapters without Boreas, with Toxica standing in as protagonist instead. A good choice, because this clearly is the point where Toxica became a true character instead of a one-dimensional joke. It was also the first point where I seriously considered her and Octa ending up together.

Chapter fifty was a chapter that was important in my planning for a long time and only grew in importance. It was always going to be a big battle in Dragonspiral Tower, another encounter with N, and the real beginning of the plot with the legendary dragons. After chapter 25, the second battle between Boreas and Diego was added to that. Then, over parts five and six, I realised I really wanted to step things up for the last third of the fic and so the idea of Team Plasma declaring war on all trainers came to me, and again chapter fifty was the best point to start this. I was quite hyped up about chapter 50, and in fact you can see it being foreshadowed all over part seven.

With chapter 50 also came the reintroduction of an old friend: Zeph. At least, that's what I had planned after I felt sad about killing him in chapter 2 and decided to bring him back later, having survived his death by an Audino healing him. The reporters in chapter 27 were added specifically to give him a reason to go look for Boreas (originally they would have been in chapter 21 and shown Zeph Eevee Boreas evolving to Glaceon, but I completely forgot to put them into that chapter). But soon I had no more need for Zeph as I found other fun characters to write and forgot Zeph. Plus, him surviving his apparent death set a nasty precedent, with Capella having been killed off recently. I really don't like stories were characters just come back from the death easily as I find it really cheapens things, so I didn't want Zeph to come back. Around chapter 40 I decided he wasn't coming back.

But that meant I had to find another character for the sixth slot on the team. But who? The only one I had was Aqua, and she definitely wouldn't join at this point. I thought of a vague idea for a character as a love interest for Octa - this character later became Aurora Invicta – but as Toxica became a true character I already had a love interest for him. I was going to have proto-Aurora become the sixth team member to replace Capella anyway, until the crazy idea of having Zeph apparently return, but it actually being a disguised Diego hit me. I laughed at it at first and thought it was a silly idea, but the more I thought of it, the more I liked it. It would allow all the plans and backstory I had for Flareon-Zeph not to go to waste, and let Boreas and Diego face off mentally for once instead of just physically. I thought of all the little ways Diego would betray himself and hid them in the chapters of part eight so that not only Boreas could guess the truth, but a reader too.

Aqua was a little tricky to handle in the later parts of the story. In my early ideas, she would leave Team Plasma around part eight and return to being a wild pokémon, but make a surprise entry while the team was fighting Ghetsis and change the course of that battle. Why she would leave, I wasn't sure. I considered things like her carrying Boreas' cubs and leaving Plasma to protect them, or her just leaving because Boreas was on the other side and she didn't want to hurt her relationship with him. Fortunately I soon realised how poor and sexist these plans were. If Aqua was to leave Team Plasma, she should do so because she didn't think they were on the good side any more. So she ended up getting a lot of character development here, which eventually led to her joining the team much sooner than I had originally planned, because it was the logical next step for her.

Part eight was great to write, full of action and with the constant suspense (for me) about Zeph being Diego. I wrote quickly during this time, eager to get to chapter 57 and the third battle between Boreas and Diego. And it all worked out well; people seemed to enjoy that a lot and I heard a lot of speculation. But then, when chapter 57 was done, I had lost my incentive to write on. With the Zeph-Diego thing solved, it didn't pull me forward any more. And chapter 58 featured another battle, which I had quite burned myself out on by now (this is very notable when reading it). So I just didn't enjoy writing any more. It took me two whole months before finishing chapter 58, and it would've taken even longer had the fic's first birthday on 4 May 2012 not been approaching, which made me force myself to get the chapter out before then (the same day, as it turned out). It was basically writer's block and truly sucked quite a bit. Once I was through 58, it was easier as I had no more battles to write for a while, but I still went slow for most of part nine.

At this point, Aqua was more and more becoming a part of the team, and I realised she would become a true teammember soon; it was unavoidable as I just didn't have the time to introduce a new character to be the sixth on the team. I was concerned about this hurting her character if I just had her join like that, and wanted to do this in a fashion true to her, which is why she leaves the team for a while just before Victory Road and doesn't join them until she's really confronted by Team Plasma's evil.

Diego seemingly being on the road to redemption was something that wasn't planned at first, but just naturally evolved from him playing Zeph. I knew that he would become a true villain once again in part eleven, but decided it would be fun to pretend he was going to be redeemed by the experience. It also seemed a good way to make the third and fourth battles between him and Boreas interesting, albeit in a different way, even though I knew they wouldn't be as epic as their first, second, and fifth battles. If you dig into Diego's personality a bit, you find he has redeeming qualities, and that there is some good in him. But if you dig below this, you will find it is just a superficial layer, and that below it there is nothing but a shrivelled, black heart.

While on vacation in Austria, I finally had a lot of time without much distraction. Every day I would go for walks in the mountains and take my laptop in my backpack. Then on a bench in some gorgeous place, I would write some Surprising Adventures. Chapters 63 to 65 got written like this, yet it took me quite a while to get them out. The reason for that was that I still needed to proofread them, and was suddenly swamped in study stuff as the year began again. But it still allowed me to keep up a decent pace despite the busyness.

As I said before, I made sure the Elite Four were set up beforehand, with the exception of Caitlin. Grimsley was in chapter 13, Marshal in chapter 27, and Shauntal's pokémon were in chapter 46. The Elite Four battles themselves were difficult to write, as I had always found the Gym Leader battles relatively uninteresting (you can clearly see this as from Elesa onward the Gym Leader battles get less and less attention in their chapters with each ongoing leader) and writing four full six-on-six battles was a rather daunting task. But by focussing on more interesting matchups within the battles (Froslass vs. Boreas is my favourite) and even more on character development I made those chapters interesting after all. I knew it was my last chance for character development, as part eleven wouldn't have much room for it, so part ten is crammed quite full of character things.

With chapter 69 we finally deviated from the story's original course to get to the much improved ending as it starts on the morning of the final battle. But things don't truly get interesting until chapter 70. While I was originally going to have them actually fight Reshiram to catch it, it felt like too much of a distraction from the important things of the chapter: the confrontation between Aqua and N; Black and N; Boreas and Diego; and finally the relationship between N and Diego. The interaction between Aqua and N is probably my favourite because it shows how much she has changed since they last met, twenty chapters earlier. I puzzled around a bit with how to handle the battle, as Zekrom had to be shown very powerful, yet it had to be beaten. The best way to do this would be to have most of Black's team fall to Zekrom before winning, but there's another problem: Diego. He too had to be shown to be powerful, as he always has; and Boreas couldn't beat him yet: that was reserved for their final battle. So both needed to take down multiple of Black's pokémon. I think the solution I used, of having Boreas go first against N's other pokémon and just completely defeat all four of them on his own turned out pretty funny and was quite a cool moment for Boreas. Of course, the fourth battle between him and Diego is probably their most minor one, and this has a good reason: they fight again in only six chapters! Since that was supposed to be their big final showdown, I would only take away its shine by letting Diego do much in chapter 70. Instead, the fight between him and Boreas was over fast, and the fights between Diego and Octa and Aqua not portrayed at all. It annoyed me to have to skip over the fight so much, and I was right in expecting it to annoy readers too, but I hope you see it was worth it to make chapter 75 really great.

I'm not sure where the idea to have the Sages use the pseudolegendaries and Kyurem came from. I think Ghetsis' Hydreigon being such a monster in the games made me want to give them all one, to spice up their teams for the final battle, as each of them had after all been defeated once already. However, with six pseudolegendaries and seven Sages, I had a bit of a problem. Especially since I wanted Ghetsis to have Hydreigon, and couldn't just go with the other Kyurem idea I had. Well, I went with it in the end; too bad about Hydreigon. The previews for Black and White 2 were shown quite shortly after I changed my plans to the way they became in the end, and unfortunately they probably were the death sentences of N and Black. Although it is likely N would have died in any case to get him out of the way and to truly cement Diego's villainy.

The final battle draws some inspiration from The Lord of the Rings, and was incredibly fun to write. It was chaotic and crazy and sometimes made me wish for a more visual medium of storytelling. However, it did have the same effect as part eight: by its end I was tired of writing battles (which wasn't much of a problem, since chapter 75 is a different style of battle than the others and chapter 76's focus doesn't lie on the fighting). It was hard, and fun to do. Boreas and Aqua getting married in battle was a silly idea that was oddly enough not consciously derived from Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, though I've watched that movie a dozen times. I knew it would just make part of my readers groan and facepalm, but as long as the rest laughed and loved it, I figured that was worth it, since I enjoyed the idea myself. I did make sure to keep all the silliness in the battle restricted to chapter 72, locked up safely inside it so the rest of the battle could be quite grim.

The final showdown between Boreas and Diego was possibly the most fun chapter I've written in the entire story, and is one of my favourite moments of it. Not only is it a resolution to their long-standing enmity, but it is also some good action and it involves Boreas at his most badass showing how powerful he has become and barely winning despite the crippling injuries he received.

Boreas getting badly wounded in the fight with Diego wasn't just important because this makes sense fighting someone so powerful, but also because if Boreas emerged from his showdown healthy, it would've been a fight with Kyurem that awaited him when he got to Ghetsis' throne room. But he had just done his climactic fight; that would be boring. Rather, in chapter 76 he would face a moral challenge instead of a physical one: could he sacrifice his life, and that of his friends, for the greater good? In short: is Boreas a hero? I think the chapter gives an answer to that question. It was not a lie when I said I got misty-eyed writing the paragraph where he looks back on his life as he thinks he's about to die. A large part of that was the realisation that the story had reached its end, even if Boreas hadn't.

I decided to be quite mean with Boreas' apparent heroic sacrifice to hammer it home better, cutting it off right at the moment it seemed he had died and switching over to his friends for their reactions. The many utterly saddened responses to it mean a lot to me, as it shows you all like Boreas a lot, just like I do.

Chapter 77's beginning was originally planned to be seen from Octa's perspective until I realised it would be far more poignant to portray it from Aqua's, and for that reason much happier when he turned out to be alive.

Chapter 78's content was planned to be part of 77 until very late; I think I decided to split them when I was in Austria. Part of this was to allow one to mainly deal with the battle and the war's resolution while the other dealt with the characters going their own ways, but another part of it was that I just wanted to hear your reactions on Boreas not being dead after all before the end.

And just now, nearly two years after the story's beginning, I typed out the wonderful words "The End." on my laptop, while sitting in a train. It was easily the most bittersweet moment of the entire fic for me, which is why I typed out this entire ridiculously long story of the story. I have greatly enjoyed writing Boreas, Aqua, Octa, Toxica, Capella, Lucius, Selene, Black, and even Diego and I would love for there to be more chapters to write; but there aren't. I have considered several sequel ideas, but at this point a sequel is not very likely. However, I might yet do it.

There are still a lot of errors in this story. Some are easy to fix, some aren't. I plan on going back to the beginning and fixing all I can fix to make this story the best I can. Then, when the story is as good as I feel I can make it, I'm going to have a single copy of it printed for myself, because that just seems like an awesome idea. After that, it'll truly be goodbye to Boreas from me as I will probably work on some original stories (though I might go for a sequel after all...)

As for you, dear reader, I really hope you enjoyed The Surprising Adventures of a Glaceon in Unova, whether or not you are still reading this way too long annotation. While I write for myself in the first place, your comments have been of enormous value to me, and I probably wouldn't have reached 320134 words, about 400 pages, 78 chapters, 11 parts, in short, one whole story without you. I have enjoyed every one of your comments and even now, after it's over, I will still gladly get more. If you're reading this twenty years after I type these words and have something to say about chapter 53, please go bug my 41-year old future self. The old bastard will appreciate it. You can reach him by reviewing or mailing to jochematteveld at gmail dot com . I intend to respond to any comment that requires a response, though obviously I can't do so to anonymous ones.

In any case, whether you comment or not, I want to thank you all again for reading my story. And here, for the last time, are my answers to your questions.

FEEDBACK: AvatarCat13: Q: I'd sure like to see the finale of this epic tale. I've read about this from TV Tropes, and I've started reading this story ever since. When I first started reading it, this story was on its 66th chapter. So much time has passed...

A: Yeah, a surprising amount of time has passed even since such a recent chapter. Once upon a time, there were at least two chapters each week... But then, those chapters were shorter and easier to write than my current ones.

Vulpix411: Q: Sorry about that. I had spent most of the day reading so I could not think straight, but I think an apology is in order: IAMSORRYIAMSORRYIAMSORRYIAMS ORRY!

A: It's alright, don't worry. I'm quite glad you like Boreas so much.

Duststar1: Q: Dude...you know that I was going to kill you if Boreas died right? (I'm sure a lot of people would have joined in) I would have just injured you if you killed off Aqua or Febby but Boreas...he has become my favorite characters. To me, he has one of the most realistic personalities and I can relate to him.

A: And the same goes for you. Glad to see I'm not alone in liking Boreas so much.

Q: By the way have you read "A Miscellaneous tale of night and day" by Starran? The romance and humor in this fanfic reminds me of hers'.

A: I unfortunately have very little time to read fanfics, so I haven't read it. But I might give that one a try.

LemondoughnutPXC: Q: Oh, thank Arceus Boreas is alive. I thought he was dead for sure! I can't believe he's alive. But, expect the unexpected, right? Though it isn't really unexpected if you expect it...never mind. Great chapter! I can't wait for the ending. I don't really want it to end though D:

A: Well, they are the _Surprising_ Adventures of a Glaceon in Unova. You should probably expect the unexpected. And I don't want it to end either, yet here the ending really is.

fractalman: Q: Garak: "They were all true"

Bashir: "what about the lies?"

Garak: "My dear doctor, especially the lies".

Star trek: deep space nine.

It seems relevant, given the content of your notes.

A: First of all, thanks for comparing me to my favourite Star Trek character of all time. And secondly, the notes to chapter 76 were indeed, just like mr. Garak's stories, indeed mostly lies with chunks of the truth mixed in.

ShinyEsp: Q: I think I dislike Boreas, actually. You've put him in an insane number of situations where he could have easily died, but he has protagonist-itis and must survive.

A: Fair enough, I can see how you would feel that way.

Synco: Q: Wow. Just...wow. I am very, very glad that you didn't end up killing as many people as I thought you were going to. Anyway, since this story is coming to a close, are you still going to continue ask boreas and the others?

A: Sure, I'll continue answering question posted there ( askboreasandtheothers dot tumblr dot com )

Guest: Q: They never got the Icicle Badge?

A: Yes, they did; it just wasn't portrayed directly because of the battle being more important.

Q: though I dislike how he just randomly died on a Hydreigon at the end. That just came out of nowhere and was all like you were thinking, 'Dammit, I have to kill him off quickly! And the Hydreigon is hungry! And I promised the readers! Quick, have the main villain be consumed by a random Hydreigon because falling off a bloody cliff wasn't good enough!'

A: Well, the Hydreigon was essentially intended as an aversion of the standard 'Disney-villain death' of falling to his death. I dislike it for how overused it was and considered having him appear to survive it, only to be devoured by his 'saviour' an amusing way to avert it. However, judging by the response to it I should probably have just had him fall to his death.

Decimator1337: Q: perfect title. "The Surprising Adventures" fits this... epic saga perfectly.

A: Which is rather surprising in itself given that it was a pretty random title I pulled out of the air when I quickly had to think of one when I was posting chapter 1.

Q: So... there might be a sequel.

A: Possibly... Though I really am not sure at all. Count on there being no sequel; I might happily surprise you.

Q: Don't forget, though, to tell us what happened to Brittanicus in the end.

A: Well, he was wounded in the battle but turned out okay and is still alive.

Q: Oh, and this is kind of embarrassing for me, but I must say: Thank you for not being as cruel to your characters as I am to mine. ;)

A: Hehe, you're welcome. I suppose I did go a little soft on them there near the end. But they deserved it.

Feral: Q: Finally finished this fic. One of the best I have ever read. I was teary-eyed in the end just knowing I wouldn't be adventuring with your characters anymore.

A: So am I; this story has become such a big part of my life for the past two years. And now, it is really over as this is the final question. Thank you all again for reading and I hope to see you again.

UPDATE: And now, one year later, I've begun the sequel after all! It's called The Glaceon and the Shadow, and I just posted the first chapter.


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